


The Princess Saves Herself In This One (And Also Her Kingdom)

by SquigglyAverageJoe



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-01-13 01:07:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21235607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquigglyAverageJoe/pseuds/SquigglyAverageJoe
Summary: “the princess locked herself away in the highest tower, hoping a knight in shining armor would come to her rescue. - i didn’t realize I could be my own knight.” —Amanda LovelaceBasically, the entire plot: The Kingdom of Hyrule is threatened once more by a new evil and also not, but the princess of this time refuses to stand idly by. Actually, she’s going to play a much bigger role in this story then any of her ancestors have in theirs.





	1. So, Basically Link Doesn’t Exist, As The Result Of Meddling With Time

A part of her, deep, deep, deep down knew this was a nightmare, but it felt hyper realistic. But it had to be a nightmare, because in every story she read about her beloved ancestors—there was a warning and that was usually a nightmare or a vision. This couldn’t be real because she had had no warning—so this had to be that warning, it had to be.

All around, endless green stretched out for miles and miles, the sunlight warm on her skin, the breeze gently guiding the sound of every plucked string on her harp much farther than it probably should have gone.

And just like that, the beauty faded, the peace ended. The sky began to darken, the grass turning to an ashy grey and a wave appeared, about to wash over her—but it was pitch black. Not an ocean wave, it looked like one of ink and for a moment, Zelda froze. Then, common sense returned, she dropped her harp—paying no attention to how it sank into the grass and then into the earth, disappearing like a sun beneath the horizon—and started running.

It was no use—as if it was not a wave and was actually a solid mass of stone, it fell on top of her, shoving her to the ground and knocking the breath out of her lungs. She would have gasped in horror, but she changed her mind on the wave being stone thing because it was wet and soaked her clothes and it was so, so cold, it seeped into her skin and into her very soul, chasing out all warmth and she couldn’t breathe, she was drowning and she couldn’t swim because it held her down—

—she cried out for help, desperate, but it filled her mouth and she choked and, oh goddesses, she couldn’t breathe she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t breathe—

She awoke with a horrified gasp, pressing her hand to her mouth. Beside her bed, Impa turned to face her, concern etched into her features as Zelda gasped for breath she swore she didn’t have minutes ago. After a minute, Impa sat on the edge of her bed, the mattress sinking with her added weight. She rested a hand over Zelda’s, which sat on her lap. “Princess,” she said, gently. “Are you okay?”

“...Just a nightmare. But it was an actual one this time, not just waking up in a cold sweat.” She gulped one last intake of breath to steel herself somehow—and then used her other hand to push some hair out of her face, hating how damp and gross it felt on her fingers.

“What happened?”

“..I was in Hyrule field and...I somehow drowned? ...A tsunami of sorts washed over me, but it was so dark and cold, if it was water, it would have been ice, but...it was black as ink. It...wiped out everything, all life.”

“Hm...An omen, perhaps,” Impa mused. She must have been middle aged, but Zelda couldn’t quite tell. Ever since she was a little girl, the general had looked the same—white hair, tanned skin, scarlet eyes and red markings on her skin, always dressed in armor or something, always ready for a fight she never sought out. She was supposed to just protect Zelda, but this was not an uncommon occurrence—if something happened to her, Impa would always be eager to assist Zelda in any way possible. For some reason, she carried a very large knife with her—like one no one of Impa’s size should be able to carry. Impa was not tiny, however—she was tall and seemed slender until you realized she was practically all muscle and could suplex the entire royal family with one arm if he was allowed to. Still though, Zelda thought it was impractical—although impressive. “Of dark times in store for Hyrule.”

Zelda studied her carefully. “Dark times...?” She wanted Impa to grin and claim she was merely jesting, that bad dreams were only bad dreams and the entirety of Hyrule was safe, but Impa looked deadly serious.

“If this is the case, your highness, we must locate...him.” She turned to look at a folded green tunic sitting on the dresser a couple feet from Zelda’s bed. “We must find the reborn spirit of the hero.”

“Impa...why is his tunic there?”

She frowned. “I don’t entirely know, but it’s a safe spot for it. We’ll return for it later—we should search for him.”

At some point, the Hyrulean royal family started to see a pattern, and every woman of noble blood was thoroughly educated on the history of the Triforce and the legend of the hero.

Zelda was very familiar with the legends—she very much enjoyed reading them, even though it was off putting to read about an ancient princess who had the same name as her when she wasn’t sure if she could ever be as great as her ancestors.

For a reason Impa couldn’t begin to understand, the young princess was incredibly confident in her decision to look among the trainees. “We will find no fully realized heroes here,” Impa said. “We would be wiser looking elsewhere.”

“But in some of the legends, the hero started out as a soldier or a knight, didn’t he?” Zelda didn’t know for sure—she just knew something inside her was leading her to look among these trainees. They were sparring, it seemed. She glanced among them.

“Yes—but these are mere trainees. They don’t really show much promise, either. The years of peace have left them weak and soft. If he is among them, our kingdom would definitely fall, even with his help.”

Zelda paused—then ran forward. Below them, there was a handful of soldiers in a sparring match, she looked among them, something in her mind screaming that yes, yes, he was there, he had to be somewhere near there, but she found nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Before she could agree with Impa, she heard hurried footsteps. She turned around—a soldier knelt before her, his breathing labored, but he didn’t wait before he said anything. He was clearly in a rush. “Your highness! A horde of monsters is marching towards Hyrule Castle!” He panted for breath.

Zelda didn’t hesitate. “Impa, prepare the troops for battle.”

She nodded. “Right.” She looked at the soldier—he nodded too, got to his feet and jogged ahead, Impa following.

She glanced one more among the trainees and felt a stab of disappointment. She had barely had any time to find him—she had wasted her little time. She decided to follow after Impa.

The horde approached slowly, as if they were taking their sweet time and weren’t in any sort of rush. It was slightly intimidating. Zelda narrowed her eyes in an attempt to see more of them, she could feel the army that stood behind her tense up. At her side, Impa was sharpening her weapon, a curved blade the princess swore was twice her height.

Zelda tried to steel herself as they got ever closer. She had a feeling this would not end well.

Spoiler alert: it didn’t.


	2. Yay, War. Also Girl Power, But That’s Towards The End.

For what Zelda could only assume was the same reason she had thought that she would find the reborn spirit of the hero inside the castle walls, she tried to not stray far from Impa. She was careful to avoid one area of the battlefield in particular and clearly for good reason—a few moments had passed and then a trio of Bokoblins somehow managed to push some obstacle in the way of a keep, making it impossible to get in or get out. It made the keeps past it unreachable at the moment. The handful of the soldiers there would have to wait to receive any assistance, but there was little soldiers there. And for the most part, Impa very well refused to leave Zelda’s side.

The end of the battle seemed nowhere in sight—and for that, Zelda was glad because she knew if it was in sight, she would see how hopeless the situation was.

“Where did all these monsters come from?” Impa demanded, using her blade to cut through a collection of enemies. Zelda’s rapier tore into every monster easily and quickly, but only one at a time. 

Zelda wasn’t entirely sure if she was supposed to respond or not; conversations were apparently a lot more difficult to maintain on a battlefield. “I don’t know, but I would like to know too! There’s so many of them!”

Across the field, she heard something small and tinny. “Someone, help!” She jerked around, trying to find who had called out for her—and almost got impaled by a cleaver. “I’m too little to fight monsters!”

“Impa, did you hear that?” Zelda asked, glancing around. Impa did not respond—there! Small and blue, a tiny fairy fluttered over the ground while an enemy swiped at it. Since apparently, no one else was going to and she would feel pretty guilty to just ignore the fact someone literally called out for help and she didn’t offer it while they mercilessly got swatted out of the air with a knife, she rushed forward, leaving Impa’s side to rescue the fairy.

Zelda took down the enemy easily—it wasn’t like the enemies were challenging, or thatZelda was weak, there was just so many. For a minute, the fairy seemed to regard her, fluttering about nervously, almost in a panic before flying directly into Zelda’s chest without so much as a warning. 

“Thanks! I’m Proxi!” The fairy shouted. Even though, yes, that fairy flew _inside_ of her chest, the voice seemed to sound in her ears—Zelda heard perfectly. “And who are you?”

Zelda didn’t entirely know how to respond. Her mind was in pieces right now—more enemies were gathering. Did she use her title? Just her first name? Her last name? The fairy just used her first name, would it be rude to use her title, or would it be rude to not even mention she was the princess of Hyrule?

“I’m Zelda,” she said, taking her blade through another enemy. She should probably find Impa again.

“Like the princess?” The fairy gasped. “Oh, that’s so cool! It’s so nice to meet you, you’re so pretty! And you have a really cool looking sword! Sorry for not asking for permission before I flew into your chest, in hindsight, that was probably rude.”

Zelda watched a line of soldiers run from somewhere else to somewhere else—she followed the sound of metal scraping against metal and guessed that was probably where Impa was. Proxi continued to chat, as if she found the battlefield too quiet. “Do you know what’s happening? All of these monsters just kind of appeared and hurt a bunch of fairies—_so glad_ I didn’t end up like them, but they’re probably fine, probably just emotionally traumatized.”

All around, the living were dropping dead—soldiers, allies, people, just as much as monsters. Zelda finally found Impa again, and managed to grasp her bearings enough to shout at her troops to hold their ground as she continued to slash through her enemies.

“Princess Zelda! Where did you go?”

“You know how you wanted me to be more social as a child? Well, I made a new friend.”

“In the middle of a battlefield?”

Proxi flew out of her chest and inches away from Impa’s face, possibly not knowing what personal space was. Impa didn’t even flinch, though she did squint a little—Proxi was bright. “Hi!” Proxi shouted happily. “She rescued me! Oh, are you the general! Your sword’s really big, you’re tall!”

Before the general could question Zelda any further on her new friend, the ground shook—from a keep nearby, a plume of smoke rose into the sky. A man was shouting. This did not seem like a good sign.

“Don’t let the dragon knight break through!” A higher ranking soldier shouted from somewhere in that general area.

“Dragon knight?” Zelda pondered.

“Your highness, I can take care of this—this could be dangerous,” Impa said.

“I can go with you—what ever is happening over there, you’ll need help and I can fight!”

Impa nodded, probably not really wanting Zelda to come with but probably not seeing any point in arguing with the girl. She sheathed her sword, ducked an incoming blow from a Bokoblin and raced towards the one keep, Zelda hot on her heels.

Proxi continued to chatter excitedly. “Wow, there’s so many enemies! And so little of you guys! ...If you guys struggle any more like this, you could always contact the—_HOLY FARORE, WATCH OUT!”_

A green, scaly looking monster spat flames at her feet and she barely rolled out of the way, coming back up with her blade to swipe at it—which it dodged, though just barely. Zelda managed to slash at it when it tried to spit fire at her again, before continuing her run to the keep which—

—the moment she entered it, she noticed who was probably the dragon knight. A humanoid looking man with pale skin in red armor with a helmet that looked like a monster skull—Zelda, for some reason, thought to find his eyes, but she couldn’t see them. The entire keep was warm, as if it had been turned into an oven, and Impa had a puncture wound on her abdomen that must have came from the pike in the enemy’s hand.

“Who are you?” She shouted at him. “What are you doing here?”

Even though she couldn’t see his eyes, it felt like he was rolling them. He blatantly ignored Zelda’s presence and instead—one of his hands growing claws, bursting into flame and growing three times it size, charged at Impa—but she just dodged like it was nothing.

Zelda realized Impa probably didn’t _need _her help, per se, she could definitely hold her own against the dragon knight, whoever he was, and probably could for a very long time, but she had a feeling she shouldn’t just let Impa duel him for a couple of hours and stand by the sidelines to watch, not when their forces were dwindling and dying all around. She drew her bow and fired a light arrow, aiming for an eye she couldn’t see. He happened to move at that exact moment, but it still hit him, just in his torso, like how she assumed his pike hit Impa.

That seemed to get his attention—what better way to grab someone’s attention than with a burning, glowing bright arrow to the stomach?

Back in her chest, Proxi cheered. “Wow, you hit him!” She praised. “That’s so cool, I’m barely the size of an arrowhead.”

Seemingly distracted by the arrow in his abdomen, at least for a minute, Impa managed to charger him, and slice through his armor with her knife. He stumbled backwards—Zelda already had another arrow notched.

For a minute, she could feel his unseen gaze on her and he realized that he was outnumbered and could not take the two of them at the same time. He slowly got to his feet—for a reason neither of them were too sure over, they didn’t charge him.

“You haven’t beaten me,” he said, as if he were just friendly reminding them. “You’ve merely refused to fight fairly, one on one.” With another shout, he rose into the air—and left.

Impa looked at her briefly. “Nice shot.”

Proxi made a gasping noise. “That was a _DRAGON!”_ She shouted. “That was so cool!”

Somewhere else on the battlefield, someone was cackling loudly—their voice hoarse as if it hadn’t been used in a long time. “ATTACK! DESTROY! MASSACRE! KILL THE ROYAL WHELP BEFORE I GROW IMPATIENT!” Zelda realized she probably would not get along well with the voice’s owner—more enemies continued to flood the battle field.

Impa cursed, drawing her blade again and slashing through a small crowd of enemies. There was no time to rest.

“We need to split up,” Zelda said. “If we capture both the Central and East Field Keeps, we could close the gate and stop all these monsters.”

“All you sure you can handle all this by yourself, your highness?”

“Yes, I can take the East Field Keep—just go to the Central one and close its gates—I have a plan!”

“Yay!” Proxi shouted. 

The waning amount of soldiers nearby was actually started to erode at Zelda’s nerves a bit, especially since someone literally just shouted about killing, specifically killing “the royal whelp” which Zelda had a feeling she knew, so as positively useless as she was in fighting, Zelda kind of appreciated the company from someone who wasn’t slashing at her.

The keep fell to her after a couple of moments, a few soldiers being able to help, though not many. The majority of them seemed to be struggling to hold their own.

With both keeps captured, Zelda was free to act on her second part of the plan. “Proxi, you mentioned earlier how we could contact someone—I don’t suppose you were referring to the Great Fairy?”

“Yes, actually! Why?”

“I know where to go to get there—do you think you could find Impa and lead her there for me? I think we need her help.”

Proxi hesitated for a minute. “Okay, I can do that! Are you going to be okay by yourself?”

“Hopefully,” Zelda said. “Just hurry!”

“Okay!” Happily, the fairy fluttered off somewhere, hopefully to find Impa. Zelda exhaled slowly—and then immediately turned on her heel and started running to where she knew the closest fairy fountain was.

Multiple monsters tried to stop her, no one tried to help her. She found herself using her bow more often than her rapier—it made it much more easier to deal with the green monsters, Lizalfos, she thought they were called though she was a little too busy to see for sure if that was what they were.

She got in easily, and there was barely any sign of life in the large room except for a cucco that pecked lazily at the ground. Zelda nodded at it. “Hi.” It clucked but otherwise left her alone.

She glanced around the room, repeatedly, trying to make sure there wasn’t any sort of enemy behind her or anything. She wasn’t sure if she had ever been left alone for this long before and it was kind of strange. _What if Impa gets hurt and none of the other soldiers can help her? What if Proxi didn’t reach her? What if I’m just here waiting when someone else needs my help?_

_ What if this doesn’t even work?_ She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself—losing her head would do her absolutely no good right now, she knew that. She heard footsteps.

“Princess Zelda!” She sighed in relief and turned to face Impa. 

Impa slowly came to a stop, Proxi floating above her shoulder. “I flew as fast as I could! I hope you weren’t waiting too long!”

“Actually, it was kind of nice being able to catch my breath—did you capture the keep?”

“I’m not sure how long it will stay captured—our troops are dying. Do you have a plan?”

Zelda nodded. “Yes—the Great Fairy. In all those legends I was taught, she usually helped the hero out and we need some help, even if we aren’t him.”

“Cool!” Proxi said enthusiastically. “So, are we gonna contact her or what?”

“Well...I don’t know how.”

Proxi kind of looked like she was bouncing in the air. “Well, you just stand in the circle.”

Impa looked at the floor. “The circle?”

“It’s a magic circle.” Proxi floated towards the center of the room. “The one in the middle of this keep.”

Impa paused. “And we just stand there?”

“Yeah!” Proxi chirped.

Hesitantly, they stood in the circle that was in the middle of the room. It began to glow—Zelda honestly didn’t know what to do from here. She had the feeling she would upon normal circumstances, but not at the moment. 

All of a sudden, a tall, thin figure jumped out of the fountain Zelda had spent very little attention on, sending water splashing onto the stone floor. With a booming, terrifying laugh, the Great Fairy stood before them. She was gigantic—tall did not begin to describe her, Zelda felt like an ant next to her. She was decked in a rather revealing outfit that seemed to be made of green leaves and she had long pink hair. Zelda and Impa just stood there, staring at the mass amounts of eye makeup this lady had on.

“What do you think?” The Great Fairy asked, as if she actually knew them. “I look marvelous, don’t I, loves? One gets so bored in this isolated little fountain, I have to keep myself entertained somehow, so I’ve been experimenting.”

“Gr—“ Zelda started, but she interrupted her.

“Ooh, don’t tell me, I know exactly why you’re here!” She exclaimed. “Well, no, I don’t—but let me guess! You have a short matter of time to live and you’ve come to me for a cure for a life threatening disease? No, no, that was that girl last year. Oh, you’ve been incredibly injured in a battle against an enemy and you can feel your life trickle out of you by the minute? ...Oh, you two seem healthy. OH! Did someone set a tree on fire?”

“What?” Zelda asked.

“Oh, no, no, no, I got it! The Hyrulean Army has just entered a war against an unknown evil after a long time period of peace and you thought for sure the amazing hero of legend would show up to save your kingdom but for some reason, he’s slacking off and has yet to arrive, so the fabled Princess Zelda and her General, Lady Impa of the Sheikah Tribe have shown to ask for assistance against the evil that is trying to turn your beloved kingdom into some sort of war zone!”

“What?” Impa asked.

“Um, I think that was it, yeah,” Zelda said.

“Really? I was just guessing. Poor girl! You don’t need to say another world—let me help you!”

For a minute, the keep was silent. The Great Fairy didn’t seem to do anything other than whip out a nail file and fix her nails, humming cheerfully. 

“Um—“ Zelda started, but at that minute, a loud explosion could be heard from somewhere outside, so strong it shook the earth. She felt her eyes widen.

“Oh, don’t worry, dearies!” The Great Fairy exclaimed. “Your very few soldiers were perfectly protected by the blast, all the structures in the field too! However, the enemies forces—well, how does a kill count of a couple thousand sound to you? Normally, I’d ask my precious fairies for help, but I wanted to be careful because the entirety of your forces is very weak and small and it would be a _shame _for the princess of Hyrule to die at such a young age because of a—well, I don’t suppose you understand why this war has started, do you?”

“War?”

“Oh, you’ll learn in due time, my dear! Until then, the two of you be safe out there. This won’t be the last we see of each other, methinks!” With another way too joyous laugh, the woman vanished back into the fountain.

“...We should probably go see what damage has been done,” said Impa.

The enemy forces had thinned out considerably, Zelda noted, but there was still an issue.

Loud peals of laughter filled the air and echoed in her ears. “This is where it gets interesting!” Exclaimed a voice Zelda was pretty sure belonged to someone who she would not get along with and who Impa would probably get along with even less then her. “Unleash King Dodongo!”

A large lizard fell from the sky—not a dragon, Zelda was pretty sure. Dragons had wings, this one didn’t—it looked like whoever unleashed it just picked it up and threw it smack dab center in the battlefield, a scaly monster with red talons and a thousand pointy teeth as it threw it’s head back in a roar. It slammed down a wall and the inside of it’s mouth grew bright red and hot.

Impa shouted a curse word—Zelda kind of wanted to do the same. “_AHHHH!”_ Proxi shouted helpfully. “_WHAT DO WE DO?!”_

Before Zelda could even think of an answer, the lizard’s jaw dropped and a scarlet fireball flew out of it’s mouth, knocking at least a dozen men off of their feet. At least half of them didn’t get back up. “Panic,” Zelda wanted to say, literally only being eighteen, she was still basically a child, but the monster before her seemed about to spit out another fire ball and all she could think about was how terribly bad the outcome of this battle would end up if she did not get that mouth to close.

_I’m so glad I brought a bag of bombs with me before I left bed this morning, _she thought, pulling one out and just tossing it directly into King Dodongo’s mouth.

She was more of surprised about how that worked—it didn’t explode on contact or anything, and for a minute, Zelda wondered if she just gave her enemy a rather strange snack when it started chewing down and swallowed—then the monster screamed and just flopped down, as if a ton of scorching hot metal was currently stabbing at it’s stomach and esophagus which Zelda really hoped was the case.

She hacked away at it with her sword—her troops were no help in bringing down the beast.

“How did the wizard transport a creature of that size to the battlefield so quickly?” Impa shouted, bringing down her obnoxiously large blade into a small flaw in the creature’s scales.

“It looks like it fell out of the sky!” Zelda remarked.

After repeating the process only twice more, it finally collapsed down, very dead, it’s mouth wide open but empty and not on fire, unlike the walls of the keep they were currently in.

When the dust settled, the Hyrulean forces claimed victory.

“General Impa! Terrible news!” A soldier shouted. He was covered in ash and bleeding heavily from the upper arm. “The enemy wizard has seized the castle!”

Everything went still—reality hit. “So, the beast was just a distraction...” Impa glanced around—the princess of Hyrule was nowhere in sight. “Where is Princess Zelda? Is she safe?”

The soldier opened his mouth to answer—but then, immediately, a figure rushed forward. “I’m right here!”

Impa sighed in relief. “Where did you go?”

“I was helping transport the wounded. There’s a lot.” Zelda sighed. “What...exactly happened?”

Impa fixed the ponytail she had thrown her white hair in earlier. “Monsters attacked. We fought them off. We barely won—and according to the Great Fairy, this is the start of a war.”

“...We still need to find him.” Impa sighed. “I especially, so I can give him an earful for not showing up earlier.”

“Impa...are all those legends true? About the hero?”

“To my knowledge, yes. ...And he has always shown up, right when Hyrule needs him most.”

Zelda glanced around. It was deathly quiet. She could hear Impa’s heartbeat and her own—she could still see the wound on her abdomen. She needed to have her wounds tended to eventually. She had no idea what she would have done without Impa, who had been there since she was a child. “We needed him. We still do. Impa, the castle...”

“Is nothing compared to your safety, your highness.”

“But, I don’t understand why he didn’t show, we _needed_ him. If this wasn’t when Hyrule needed him most, then what is going to happen now? What if...What if this time is different? What if he doesn’t come?”

“Princess, you don’t need to worry,” Impa said, but she sounded worried herself.

“But what happens then? What if something happened and he’s not gonna come? What if we just wait here for some hero we aren’t even sure exists to come save us all and he never shows, what if we wait forever?”

Impa sighed. “I don’t know. I really wish I did, Princess, but I can assure you—no harm will come to you.”

“Impa—you’re the general. You’re the strongest warrior in our army, but our army was greatly wounded today. I’m not worried about myself, I’m worried about Hyrule and it’s safety—did the goddesses forget to send him this time?”

Proxi hovered above the ground. “Whew! That was hectic!”

Impa shook her head. “You’ve never been like this before, your highness. Please, try to calm down.”

Zelda sighed. “Impa...I’m kind of scared. Do we look for him? Do we wait for him to show up? What do we do now?”

“Well, what do you think we should do from here?”

“...I know the battle literally just ended, but I overheard some troops in the soldier ward talk about a young woman leading a rebellion in the forest against the rising evil. We could use all the help we can get, and her forces probably feel the same.”

Impa nodded. “Yes, that is a good place to start.”

“Impa...” Zelda chewed her bottom lip, thinking very carefully. “You don’t think he’s coming, do you?” She tried to ignore Proxi’s whispered “Who?”

“...I know that he’s come before, he has always come, at least, up until now. Perhaps patience would be in our best interest.”

“No,” she muttered. “No, Impa...” She paused, trying to think a moment longer. “...We don’t have the time to locate him, not with all of this happening, we can’t just _wait, _can we?”

Impa pursed her lips. “We could—but I have the understanding you do not want to.”

“What kind of a ruler would I make as someone who just stood by and prayed for a knight in shining armor to come rescue her and her kingdom from a potential threat?” She swallowed. “What ever’s coming, it’s bad, and...I’m not sure if I could trust a stranger with my kingdom anyway—I can’t just stand by, and why should I when I’ve been taught since birth how to wield a sword, a bow, and magic by the general of Hyrule’s army herself?”

“Also a naginata,” Impa added, the barest hint of pride creeping into her voice.

Her mind made up, Zelda crossed her arms over her chest. “We don’t need a hero.”

Impa sighed and nodded, a small smile on her lips. “I loathe the idea of you out on the battlefield, your highness, but I know how stubborn you can be, so I won’t even try to talk you out of this. However, I have to ask you—can we find you a better outfit? It’d be wise for us to leave the moment we can to search for this woman, and I would rather you wear something that’s not this.” She gestured to Zelda’s outfit.

Zelda frowned. “What’s wrong with my outfit?”

“It’s just not practical for the battle field,” Impa said. “I mean, it’s better than what a lot of other female soldiers can wear—not that I’m judging because they can do wear whatever they want, but I would feel much more comfortable letting you out into battle properly equipped.”

“...So, you _are_ going to let me do this?”

“You are just like every princess before you, Zelda—let’s not waste time. You can hold your own in a fight—I made sure of that. If you believe you should be out with your soldiers, then I won’t stop you.”

“Oh, wow, I was actually expecting more of a fight on that—but I’m not complaining!”

“Yay!” Proxi cheered. “Girl power! Who needs men!”

“Yeah!” Zelda agreed, though she wasn’t entirely sure what she was agreeing to. She had a bad feeling, but she tried to ignore it, tried to ignore the growing ache in her very soul that seemed to whisper, “some very, very bad shit is about to happen.”

But who had time for listening to whispers when there was a war to win? She still remembered the Great Fairy, her loud, boisterous voice, her words ringing in her ears. “This won’t be the last we see of each other...” She had a feeling there wouldn’t be a good time to encounter the Great Fairy, speaking to her was supposed to be a last resort.

All she could think about was what was going to happen next.


	3. Okay, So I Probably Shouldn’t Like Lana As Much As I Do, But I Really Like Lana, and You Should Expect Zelda To Be At Least Slightly Gay For Lana. Just A Smidge.

The quickest and best known route to the forest Zelda and her forces were trying to get to was through an area called the Eldin Caves, and when Zelda was told about it, she pictured a very long, large cave, dark and made of rock, but that was not what the Eldin Caves were, apparently, and she had a feeling she should have known that, but still.

They were, in reality a series of caves and tunnels, but magma was everywhere and it was actually brightly lit, and instead of the cold, stale air Zelda immediately thought of when she thought “cave” she encountered stale air that was so unbearably hot she felt bad for the soldiers who followed close behind her, in full sets of armor, no doubt sweltering and sweating.

“Geez, it’s warm!” Proxi chirped, still following Zelda around. She was kind of annoying, but Zelda was beginning to warm up to her. Plus, some of the things she said could be kind of funny. “And there’s a lot of monsters walking around!”

“Yes,” said Impa. Zelda was slowly beginning to realize that Impa was not good at conversing with literally anyone other than Zelda. She was either shouting orders, being super intimidating or incredibly quiet to the point where you could feel the awkwardness in the air.

Zelda kind of wished she was back in her armored dress, but also, not really. The tunic she was in was slowly starting to grow on her—she didn’t even know she had had a tunic like this before, but Impa had insisted she wear something more protective if she was gonna play a more active role in their forces, so instead of the dress she usually wore, she was wearing a layer of chain mail, a tunic that was the same shade as her eyes and leather bracers on her forearms, along with a pair of boots that almost reached her knees. She had braided her hair tightly to keep it out of her face and even brought her bow along, the quiver secured to her back, thinking it’d be stupid to leave it. It was a strange feeling—the more she wore this tunic, the more she thought that her former outfit was incredibly impractical and useless in protecting her. Still though—she’d be a lot cooler in her dress then in the pair of leggings and her tunic.

“I’m sure we’ll get out of here in one piece!” Proxi decided happily as they began to advance through the series of caves.

Impa frowned, pointing across what looked like an ocean of magma to an area very, very far away from them—well, not that far, but they’d have to travel a ton of distance to get there. “The exit is over there, but we’ll have to go all the way around north to get to it...” She frowned, glancing around and noticing the very noticeable lack of people around her. 

Proxi gasped. “The Hyrulean soldiers went up ahead without us! We have to catch up!”

“I’m sure they’ll be okay,” Impa said. “Until we get there, at the moment.”

The textbook definition of confidence, one of the captains shouted, “THERE’S LAVA BLOCKING THE WAY, TIME TO PANIC!”

Another joined in. “AND MONSTERS HAVE SHOWN UP!”

“WE’RE GONNA GET WIPED OUT!”

“...These are soldiers?” Proxi asked.

“We should help them,” Zelda suggested.

She drew her rapier, moving forward quickly, Impa never straying too far from her as enemies began to swarm them, nothing but dusty bones and long nails and glowing red eyes, chattering as they were felled, but they never stopped caring and sometimes, they just picked themselves up off the ground, not caring about the broken bones or the cracked skulls they possessed. Well, Zelda supposed they didn’t have any nerves.

A familiar voice rung out. “GETTING YOU INTO THESE CAVES WAS SO SIMPLE!” Zelda heard maniacal laughter and wondered for a minute if bad guys actually found these sorts of things humorous or laughed just to intimidate their enemies. “NOW THEY SHALL BECOME YOUR TOMB!”

Impa was having a much easier time—Zelda assumed because of her weapon choice. Her blade was sharp enough to cut a man in half, heavy enough to break someone’s spine. No matter how badly the monsters wanted to get up, they simple couldn’t when she cut through them and Zelda was suddenly glad to know that Impa was on Hyrule’s side during this. They’d fall apart without her. 

Moving forward, Zelda began to realize why the soldiers were panicking so much—there was a lot of monsters. Like, _a lot_ of monsters. She knew her forces had been diminished in size by a lot, but seeing her forces in comparison to the amount of monsters swarming all around them made something inside her shrivel up and die. She knew now was no time to lose hope, but watching everyone around her struggle against the sheer numbers was disheartening. They really needed a hand. 

Desperately.

Things continued to go downhill—constant fighting, Impa constantly mowing down enemies, Proxi constantly trying to be enthusiastic and be cheerful and it almost worked, she was trying really hard. They reunited with the soldiers! Only to be surrounded by a swarm of monsters that they had to fight. Zelda almost fell to a slightly larger stalchild. Proxi was almost swatted down by a soldier by mistake. Impa almost tripped and fell into magma which would have killed her very much. And that one enemy, the one with the most horrendous laugh and voice kept shouting a _lot_. Zelda understood he was trying to be evil and scary and all, but did he have to be so loud about it?

They had almost reached the end—the end was in sight, actually. Impa had pointed to a keep in the distance that they needed to reach and then they’d be out of the tunnels, out of the heat and away from the monsters. And then, _it_ happened.

He appeared. At first, Zelda just saw a mass of dark, tattered robes adorned with gold, but then she realized that he was wearing a hood, but there didn’t seem to be a head, just a shadow beneath the hood with a glowing red eye that occasionally morphed into a mouth. His arms looked like twigs and seemed to float above the ground and Zelda’s entire body froze because _goddesses, _did he look disturbing. He laughed—the sound grating on her nerves and chipping at her sanity, the same laugh she, that all of them had been hearing. “ALWAYS SOMETHING IN MY WAY!” He shouted, but he sounded way more amused than irritated. “I’LL SMASH THESE RATS MYSELF IF I HAVE TO!”

Zelda stared, not sure if she was seeing things or if his face was actually an eye/mouth. Yep, that was a monster if she had ever seen one. “Who are you?!” She shouted, very proud of the lack of fear in her voice.

He laughed again, eying her in a way that Zelda eyed her targets when she practiced archery. “Well, shouldn’t I ask you the same? _You’re_ not who I expected to see here?” Zelda narrowed her eyes into a glare, keeping her weapon drawn and staying focused. Impa was right behind her, at least.

“I vote we just call him Wizzro,” Proxi suggested. “I feel like that’s a good name for him, because he looks kind of like a Wizzrobe, only more terrifying. That’s probably his name.”

“Why do you keep attacking us?”

He laughed again—he sure laughed an awful lot, Zelda noted. “It’s as my mistress commands!”

“Your mistress?”

“Oh, you’ll meet her soon enough—she’s been _dying_ to meet you.” His eye morphed into a mouth, showing a sickening grin. Zelda realized that was probably a threat of sorts.

“That’s incredibly off-putting!”

“Well, I wouldn’t say something like that in an attempt to be _agreeable.”_ He laughed again—Zelda once more found no humor in any of his words. “MURDERING YOU IS GOING TO BE SO EASY!”

Zelda decided she did not like where this conversation was going. Before he even finished his sentence, she had already pulled out her bow and shot him directly in the eye.

“OW, MY EYE!” He laughed. “YOU STUPID WHELP, HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT WAS MY ONE WEAKNESS?”

“I mean...when a creature has a singular eye, it’s usually it’s weakness, I took an educated guess.”

“Princess Zelda!” Impa shouted. “I think it’d be in our best interest to leave these caves while the majority of our forces are alive.”

“Right! Move onward!” She jogged close behind Impa, leaving Wizzro somewhere, still rubbing at his eye and laughing hysterically.

“Great!” Proxi cheered as they reached the end of the caves. Just through the exit, the air seemed to cool drastically from where they stood. “Now we can head into Faron Woods and find this woman we’ve been hearing about!”

“I just hope the rumors aren’t just rumors,” Zelda sighed.

Impa only nodded, stoically. 

Faron Woods was indeed a lot cooler than the caves they exited out of a few hours ago, enormous branches interlocking above them to shield them from the sun and cloaking them in the shade. However, there was a problem.

After about an hour of being lost, they found a village, hidden in the endless sea of trees and it probably would have been a very peaceful location, if not for the large amount of monsters running around and wreaking havoc, and without question, they all decided to lend a hand—or, rather, Zelda insisted they help, Impa nodded in agreement and barked orders at the rest of the soldiers while Proxi admired the nature all around them.

The first thing Zelda noticed, was that the monsters were a lot stronger than she expected as she watched one swing a club at a man, hitting him hard in the kneecap. She heard bone shatter and she was about to step in and try to help him, as the previously mentioned monster raised it’s club again to deliver another blow, only for a rain of cerulean lightning to fall to the ground, electrocuting all enemies in the area, causing them to fall down dead as a young woman appeared to just drop out of the sky, kneeling beside the felled man, concern marring her features.

Zelda’s jaw almost dropped. Something inside her _insisted_ that, yes, this was the woman they’d been hearing about.

She actually looked about Zelda’s age, she thought. Definitely young, probably too young to be in charge of leading soldiers. She was pale with large, purple eyes and blue hair pulled into a long ponytail. There was a lot of things on her outfit that Zelda couldn’t begin to describe or name, like the piece of cloth that seemed to hang from her shoulder, a pure white but with a gold pattern on it, but for the most part, she was dressed in a tight, midriff baring tube in a dark blue with white tights and a really short skirt, though she was also wearing some jewelry, all over shades of blue and white and gold, and she was clutching a book to her chest, a large, worn tome that seemed ready to fall apart.

She looked up from the soldier and they both looked eyes. “You...” She said, quietly, but not exactly a whisper.

Impa stepped forward, looking the young woman up and down. “Are you the one leading these warriors?” She asked.

Another person stepped forward, helping the fallen man to his feet as he limped, the blue woman getting to her feet also and making sure he was okay as he was helped to what Zelda could only assume was some place where his injuries could be tended to. She looked back at them. “Yes, I am.”

“You can use magic,” Impa noted. “Where did you learn your craft?”

“Oh, well...I’m a sorceress. I’ve been taught ever since I was a child.” She situated the book under her arm so the corner wasn’t jabbing into her abdomen. “You know the one who started this war?”

“No,” Zelda said. “We have no idea.”

“Her name is Cia...” She cleared her throat. “We come from the same magical clan.”

“Ah, well, that explains it,” Impa said, but Zelda wasn’t sure what that could possibly explain. Did Impa know something she didn’t? Was she being sarcastic?

“What exactly does Cia want from Hyrule?” Zelda asked. She kept in mind that there was no actual way to tell that this woman would be an ally, but if she could give a couple of answers, she’d already be helping.

She raised a thin eyebrow. “You really want to know?”

“...Yes, we would,” Zelda said.

“Well...” She appeared to be in thought, looking up for a minute before she locked eyes with Zelda once more, a playful smile on her lips. “Help me defend the forest.” She tilted her head, looking both her and Impa in the eye. “If you do that, I might tell you.”

Her and Impa looked at each other—somewhere in the distance, there was an awful lot of shouting. She turned around—and then started running.

“Your highness, do you really want to trust her?”

“If we want her help, it’s only fair we help her right now, right?” She asked. “We should follow her.”

“Something about her story doesn’t hold up right, princess—we don’t even know her name.”

“Then we’ll learn it.”

“Understood, your highness.” Impa looked incredibly concerned, but didn’t voice anything as they all ran after the woman.

As if on cue, the same, horrible laughter rung out through the forest as soon as they managed to catch up with the woman. “SCATTER THOSE HYRULEAN PESTS! EXTERMINATE THEM!”

“It’s him again,” Zelda realized.

“Do you know who he is?” The woman asked.

“About as good as I know who you are,” Zelda admitted. “Proxi—“She gestured to the blue, glowing fairy that flitted next to her now. “— decided Wizzro was his name, because for some reason, villains never introduce themselves before they try to kill you. He was the one who seemed to be leading the attack on Hyrule Castle and we found him in the Eldin Caves on our way here.”

“So, that wizard’s in charge, huh? I bet if we defeat him, the monsters will leave.”

“I have a feeling he’s going to be a real thorn in our sides,” Impa said, already pulling out her incredibly large knife and hacking away at multiple enemies as if they were nothing.

“THIS’LL TEACH YOU!”

For a moment, nothing happened. The woman looked around, but then noticed that there was nothing out of the ordinary. “...Teach us _what?”_

“Um, do you mind me asking your name?” Zelda asked.

“Oh, right! I’m Lana!” She offered a hand to Zelda cheerfully, a smile gracing her lips. “It really is great to meet you, I just wish it wasn’t under these circumstances.”

“What, you mean war?” Zelda accepted it. Lana’s hands were ice cold. She was just glad she didn’t have to keep referring to her as ‘the woman.’

And then, with no warning, giant plants sprung out of the ground, their stems slender and dark green—except, plants weren’t supposed to have mouths, were they? So why did these ones have mouths, ones lined with sharp, needle like teeth. The area around each of them was a deep purple, a sort of fog hanging above the ground and moving slowly to take up more space.

“That plant’s spewing poison,” Zelda exclaimed when she got to close and inhaled a lungful of it. She couldn’t identify exactly what it was, but it burned the inside of her throat and lungs and made her want to retch until she got out of it.

Very much alarmed, Lana shouted, “That’s a Deku Baba! They’re incredibly poisonous—even if they didn’t create a poisonous mist, getting too close can lead to them trying to take a bite out of you and they can poison you that way. Unless we can hit it’s stem with a sharp, ranged attack, we’ll all die of poisoning.”

“I got a solution!” Zelda pulled out her bow and reached for an arrow from the quiver on her back, notching it easily and aiming carefully. The stem was thin, a small target for sure, but Zelda could manage. The first one hit easily, severing the plant and the top fell to the ground, decaying in an instant. The poison evaporated, just like that.

“Nice!” Lana exclaimed. “I think there’s some more, over there in that keep!” Lana pointed to the west. “Just be careful and stay out of the weird purple cloud and you’ll be fine—do you have enough arrows?”

Zelda nodded and immediately ran off to the keep the sorceress had pointed at, shooting down any enemy that tried to get closer to her.

As threatening as they looked, the Deku Babas were push overs, Zelda thought, so long as they were taken care before you died from the poison. She continued to wander around, shooting them down easily before going to regroup with Impa who she just left with Lana, putting away her bow and turning to her rapier to cut through the monsters that stepped in front of her.

The two of them were struggling against a group of monsters that were slightly bigger than all the other ones, Lana in particular, struggling a lot. She was facing a Deku Baba, or the monster who had it’s back to one, but was careful to avoid the poison, but the minute she got rid of the one she was facing, one behind her swept at her, and as if it was instinctual, she turned around and seemed to parry the attack with nothing but a wave of her hand and arm, pages from her book tearing out of the covers and floating in front of her in the swipe, but it did very little damage to the monster. When it tried to attack her again, Lana jumped backwards—directly into the cloud of poison they were supposed to all be avoiding. Lana gasped when she realized the mistake she made, inhaling some of it and then immediately doubled over coughing. The monster got closer, unaffected by the poison as Lana tumbled to her knees, unable to stand and seemingly, unable to breathe, still hacking and coughing. “Oh no!” Proxi gasped. “Lana’s in trouble!”

Zelda fumbled with her bow, trying to notch the arrow and aim for the stem, still hearing Lana cough. She pulled the string back—

—it snapped.

For a minute, she stood there, dumbfounded, the arrow still in her fingers. Lana was still coughing and it looked like she was trying to get up, but she fell back on all fours. _That’s bad!_

Either Proxi read her thoughts or was thinking the same thing. “That’s really bad!” She shouted.

To her right, Impa was fumbling with something herself and muttering curse words beneath her breath and Zelda looked over, not sure of what exactly to do and realized what Impa was doing when she heard something embed itself in a tree across from Impa, near the Deku Baba.

A crossbow. Impa had a crossbow, and her aim wasn’t as good as Zelda’s, but she had a crossbow. She fired another arrow and got the monster nearing Lana in the back of her head, (_Thank the goddesses it was so slow, _Zelda thought.) and the third one finally pierced it’s stalk, severing it easily. The poison began to evaporate and Lana drew in a deep breath. Zelda rushed forward, helping her up.

“Are you okay?”

Lana responded by coughing into her elbow—when she was done, Zelda noticed that there was some blood on her skin and on her lips. “Ow, that hurt,” she said at last. She gasped for breath. “Thanks so much for helping me there!” She said to Impa and then looked over at Zelda. “And...um, thanks for trying!”

“I didn’t expect my bow to break like that, that was...bad, are you gonna be okay?”

“Yeah! I didn’t practice healing magic for years on end for nothing, I’ll be fine. We should retreat to the Deku Tree for a moment—catch our breath and regroup and...stuff.”

“Okay, let’s move then.” Zelda said.

Lana moved relatively quickly, even despite her weakened state, making it to the tree easily. It was almost uneventful, except for when Zelda fell and scraped her palms up a bit, but that was nothing, considering it seemed like Lana almost asphyxiated in a cloud of poison.

Zelda got the feeling Lana’s forces were struggling just as much as Hyrule’s, and it made her feel sick to see it just as much as it made her feel relieved to know that this wasn’t due to her being a bad leader or anything.

The forest seemed to be cooling, but it still seemed to be daylight, at least.

They all managed to catch their breath for a minute in the interior of the Great Deku Tree, which seemed to rise far higher than other surrounding trees, a massively large tree, Zelda thought. They all managed to catch their breath for a minute, Lana’s hand emitting a blue glow as she gingerly pressed it to her chest, her skin apparently just absorbing the light coming from her palm and fingertips—and then the minute ended and they all heard a shouted, “SO THEY’RE FLEEING TO THAT STUMPY LITTLE BUSH THERE, ARE THEY?” There was another horrendous laugh—Lana cringed at the sound of it, so it wasn’t just Zelda. “ENJOY YOUR LITTLE SUCCESS, WEASELS! MY NEXT PLAN WILL BURN YOUR SPIRITS TO ASHES!”

Impa opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, there was a sound—like a match being lit and all of a sudden, starting from the corner of the keep they were in, small orange flames began to grow, spreading to the walls quickly until the keep was engulfed.

“Whoa!” A captain shouted. “I can see flames!” He pointed stupidly at the flames that were everywhere, though Zelda supposed that none of them else were doing anything not stupid—they were just kind of standing there, mouths agape, in horror. “A fire’s been started!”

“AHHHH!” Proxi screamed helpfully. “LANA, DOES THIS TREE HAVE A FIRE ESCAPE BECAUSE IT’S ON FIRE?”

“Oh, no...the Deku Tree’s on fire!”

“I THINK THAT’S BEEN ESTABLISHED!” Impa shouted. Zelda noticed there was a glint of panic in her eyes.

“Goddesses...we need to quench the flames somehow! Oh, what do we do?”

Wizzro was still laughing, somewhere. “THERE’S NO WAY YOU’LL BE ABLE TO PUT OUT THAT FIRE! I’LL SEE YOU BURNED TO A CRISP!”

“What are we supposed to do?” Asked Proxi.

“Um...” Zelda tried to think. “Wait, Impa, when we contacted the Great Fairy back at the castle, didn’t she say something about a tree catching fire? Wasn’t that one of her guesses as to why we needed her?”

“She might be able to help us,” Impa agreed, but we need to find her, quickly, and—“ she pointed to the entrance of the keep. Enemies were starting to fill it slowly, as if the flames didn’t affect them. “Some of us are going to need to stay here to defend against them!”

“I might be able to find her!” Lana exclaimed, but she still seemed weak from earlier.

“Lana, you can’t go alone—I can come with you!” Zelda offered.

“Alright then—I’ll defend against these monsters, be careful!” She threw Zelda a look that probably meant they’d be having a conversation later. The flames were only growing higher. Any minute, they’d either catch flame or the tree’d start to collapse, they were going to have to start moving.

“Come on!” Lana exclaimed, already running out.

Zelda tried to follow her, but even weakened, Lana was apparently faster than her, so it was definitely a struggle. The majority of enemies actually seemed to ignore them, intent on moving towards the Great Deku Tree. “I think we should go north from here!” Proxi shouted.

“I was thinking the same thing!” Lana exclaimed. She looked at Zelda. “We need to hurry.” That seemed to be her polite way of saying Zelda needed to hurry so she could keep up with Lana.

“Right!”

The Fairy Fountain here actually felt very much like the one back at the castle, Zelda thought as they ran up the steps to the large doors, except for one thing. The doors here were metal and firmly shut.

“They won’t open!” Zelda shouted.

“Oh, noble Great Fairy, we need your strength!” Lana shouted at the doors. “Don’t leave us to this fire...”

“Okay!” Chirped a voice from inside and the doors flew open.

They both rushed in. They apparently, didn’t actually needed to contact the Great Fairy, because she was hovering in the air, her legs crossed, filing her nails. “Well, what do you know! I was right! About the tree being set on fire, thing, for a minute, I wasn’t sure how I came up with that.”

“Um, we could really use your help,” Lana said. “We just left like, a bunch of our forces there and they could easily overheat assuming the tree doesn’t just...die and kill them with it.”

“Yes, yes, that would be bad.” She put away the nail file, giggling. “Don’t you worry, loves! I’ve been saving this spell for a _rainy day?_” She waited expectantly. Neither of them knew what to do. “Get it? Because...You know what, it doesn’t matter, it was so nice to see you again, princess! I don’t think this will be the last I see of you, sorceress! _Goodbye!”_

Without another word, she swan-dived back into the water. They both stepped outside. The sky was filled with smoke, but it had stopped filling with smoke, and the tree still stood.

“That was a close one,” Lana said, watching a rather large, blackened tree branch fall. “Great Fairy, we thank you!” She shouted inside the building.

The Great Fairy said something, but it didn’t carry well with all the water, so they didn’t actually know what she said.

They ran back towards the base to help with the monsters that were slowly beginning to retreat at the realization that, because of the lack of fire, there wasn’t another danger that made them weak.

“OKAY, WHICH ONE OF YOU IDIOTS LET THEM TALK TO THE GREAT FAIRY, THAT PLAN WAS PERFECT!” Wizzro shouted somewhere. 

Inside the keep, the majority of the soldiers there were alive, but exhausted. Impa’s face was flushed and she was sweating profusely. “That was a close one,” she said to the both of them.

“Yes,” Lana said, but now that there isn’t an imminent threat—“

Interrupting her, the ground started to shake. They all looked outside.

“...Is that a crab?” Zelda asked, because it was a really large crab. A really large, cyclops monster crab.

“That’s Gohma!” Lana exclaimed. “She shoots lasers out of her eyes!”

“Okay, but the good news is, I think I know what her weak spot is!” Zelda exclaimed.

“Well, I’m by no means any expert, but I think an arrow in the eye is sure to hurt! I would recommend we keep our distance!”

As if on cue, she shot a laser out of her eye, sweeping the entire keep as she entered—the three of them barely managed to dodge. 

“I’m a terrible shot and we need to get rid of that thing _fast.” _Impa shoved her crossbow into Zelda’s hands.

“Oh, okay!” She struggled to aim it, but after a minute, got it pointed directly at the center of Gohma’s eye—then had to dodge another laser beam and aim again, but she tried to fire faster. Gohma totally blocked it.

“Try hitting it after it fires a laser beam!” Lana suggested. “I...I think it’s weaker when it’s eye’s all blue!”

“That is a very small window of time!”

“Yeah!”

Zelda waited patiently for Gohma to fire another laser—by she just swiped at them a couple times, dashed forward and then blinked. Then she fired a laser.

Zelda barely managed to duck beneath it as she rolled, landing on her knees with the crossbow in hand. She aimed and somehow, shot it directly in the center of its eye.

Gohma fell to the ground—for a minute, all was still.

“Quick! Attack it! I don’t know how long it’s going to stay down!” Lana shouted, already moving closer to it.

“What are you going to do?” Impa asked. “Give it a paper cut?”

“Paper cuts hurt!” Lana exclaimed. “And they’re magical paper cuts!”

Zelda drew her rapier and moved forward with them.

It took five times to be able to get it to fall down and not get back up.

“Wow!” Proxi said. “I can’t believe you managed to take down that huge...cyclops...crab thing!”

“Okay, now I think we actually don’t have any sort of imminent threat,” Lana said, panting. “We should be okay, that is a solid win for us.”

They all tried to catch their breath.

“We’ve been facing things like this all week,” Lana admitted. “We’re...all trying really hard to keep fighting. I was really happy to see that we weren’t the only ones fighting in this war against Cia.”

Zelda nodded. “Believe me, we felt the same. Earlier, you said you’d give us answers if we helped you.”

“Right, of course.” Lana cleared her throat. “Like I said earlier, Cia’s the one who started this war. We um...we watched over the balance of the triforce together.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She was looking at the ground, refusing to meet Zelda’s or Impa’s eyes. “It was a task given to us by the very goddesses who blessed us with a natural talent for strong magic. We...were able to see all across the ages, see everyone’s fate. See...everything.”

“That sounds cool,” Zelda said.

“Yeah,” Lana agreed. “But...we weren’t allowed to interfere. We could only watch and...at some point, the entirety of existence is nothing but a blur, but...the same face kept popping up. Repeatedly. And at some point, you notice that, you know. We...noticed it. A unique, attention grabbing soul, cursed to an eternity of reincarnation in an endless battle against evil, always born when Hyrule needs him most.”

“The hero,” Zelda said.

Lana swallowed. “Yes. Him.”

“Well, Cia and I...noticed him. And...well, I guess we kind of...fell in love? With him?”

Impa inhaled a sharp breath.

“Yeah. The thing is, he’s always bound to...another soul.” She glanced at Zelda and then looked away quickly. “Well, actually, he might be bound to a third one as well. Or, maybe that one’s bound to him? ...Is it even a soul? Um, it’s really complicated and all, but the thing is...we knew we didn’t have a chance, not...with that second soul. We were both...upset. Goddesses, this is really embarrassing! Um, Cia...didn’t take it so well, and...I don’t totally blame her. She was very upset, he was...just something we both latched onto, something that made our job worth doing and...while she was...distracted, someone...did something to her, something...dark and evil wormed it’s way into her heart and...pushed out all light.”

Lana swallowed. “She went insane. Very much insane and because she was desperate and angry and corrupted, she...started a war. With you guys. And now, she’s trying to possess all pieces of the triforce, a third of which you carry on your hand, and open what’s called the Gate of Souls, which is basically a doorway to...time and stuff—sorry, I’m getting really flustered.”

“Were you and Cia...close?”

Lana looked at the floor. “Very. I don’t think you could be closer with someone.”

“I am sorry.”

“It’s um...not your fault. But, here’s where it gets really bad. She um...doesn’t like you, at all. If she finds you, she will take your triforce and will probably kill you, but um...you know how she’s...doing this all for the hero?”

“What...?”

“Well, she’s about ready to tear apart all of time and space because um...well, he isn’t coming. And he should really be here, to fight in this war and...protect you and defeat Cia and...stuff, and I know this because I’ve seen all of this play out countless times, but...this isn’t playing out correctly. He isn’t here. He’s not coming. Meaning Cia’s going to likely destroy everything if she isn’t stopped and even then, she won’t really win. She’s after the hero, but he isn’t here.”

“Does this ‘Cia’ know that?”

“Yes—which leads to the Gate of Souls thing I mentioned. I’m starting to wonder if she’s maybe using that in an attempt to...fix things here. Or maybe just snatch a hero from another time and keep him. Also, she’s just summoning monsters with the one she currently has so.”

“That’s...a lot to take in,” Zelda said. “You mean...he’s just, not coming? Like, is there a reason?”

“He...might not exist.”

“He just doesn’t exist?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, that’s...bad.”


	4. A Bunch of Things That Happen In The Game Do Not Happen In This Fic—Though, I Guess That’s Fanfiction In General, Usually, So Maybe This Is A Lame Chapter Name That I Should Have Put More Thought Into

Lana explained it all perfectly—Cia was at a place called the Valley of Seers, a place Zelda had never heard of, but a place Impa had though she didn’t share much of what she knew. There, she sought out the pieces of the triforce which would grant her unimaginable power and they needed to stop her before she managed to get that power because then her army—which Lana had been tirelessly fighting since day one—would be, likely unstoppable and her army would only grow until the closed the Gate of Souls which monsters were pouring out of.

Despite Impa’s initial distrust of her, Lana proved to be good company—friendly and kind, the most agile fighter among them, and she knew very well what she was doing. She shared all that she knew of Cia and what was happening and Zelda and Impa both agreed that teaming up with Lana would be the best course of action.

And so, off they all were to get to the Valley of Seers, Lana leading the way. She had gotten some time to rest after nearly dying of poisoning. “I was just lucky I stayed conscious,” she had said. “Losing consciousness tends to be past the point of no return. Things would be a lot different right now.”

The Valley of Seers was dark, with weird shaped trees and large, towering structures that seemed ready to fall apart, but Lana assured them they were probably more sturdy than they looked. She also said that they were probably in luck, as Cia had probably sent some forces to look for the hero that had yet to show, because there was just no telling what had become of him. The sky was full of clouds.

A feminine sounding chuckle echoed throughout the area. “Well...you _certainly_ aren’t who I was expecting. At the very least, you’re prescience here is still useful to me.”

Lana pointed to a building with a lot of stairs. “Cia’s at the top of the ruins. Let’s take her out and stop her from summoning more monsters.”

“We could capture the ruin keeps,” Zelda suggested. She had spent a bit of the night before pouring over some maps and studying what was known of this place. “It would make for a strong foothold against the enemies.”

“We might also have better success if we split up,” Lana said. “I can take the west, since I know that the two of you won’t split up, and you guys can get the east—we’ll decide what to do from there.”

Zelda had hoped this battle would somehow be easier, but as she drew her rapier and impaled a monster, she realized that no, this would not be easier at all.

The keep wasn’t jam packed with monsters, at least, and Impa would strike down like, nine in a single swing, Zelda was pretty sure. No, no, that wasn’t the issue, the issue was the dragon knight, from back at the castle who was just a little ways away from the entrance to the keep and could be heard rather easily.

“Worthless...these vermin will barely qualify as exercise!” Zelda thought that was kind of arrogant to say, but when she caught sight of him, he hit like, three people with his pike and they fell to the ground dead, so it was rather alarming.

“If we don’t take care of him, he’ll tear our forces apart,” Zelda said.

“He’s fighting hard. We’ll have to fight harder.” Impa was probably trying to reassure her, but she sounded angry and there was still shouting from outside.

“You’re no fun. Don’t you have a stronger warrior for me to duel?”

“I can fend him off for a while,” Zelda said. “While you capture this keep.”

“Are you sure you’ll be able to take him, your highness? He’s far stronger than even I expected, and I expected quite an amount.”

“The princess will be fine!” Proxi basically sang. “She’s almost as strong as you are, Impa, she could take him!”

Zelda felt herself smile. “See? The fairy believes in me.”

“I do too, but be careful. He is not to be underestimated.”

Drawing her weapon, Zelda ran to where his voice was coming from. “Dragon knight!” Instead of stopping immediately to face her, he tore his pike through another soldier before turning towards her. “You requested a stronger warrior?”

He grinned, as if he found what she said particularly amusing. “The leader of these forces is a child? No wonder they’re so weak.”

“Legally, I am an adult.”

That was probably the wrong thing to say—he only laughed. “Maybe you’ve never been in a fight before, but they tend to have a lot less conversation.”

“Oh, no—I’ve been in a fight before. I’m not exactly trying to fight you, just distract you long enough for—“

She trailed off—immediately, a shower of blue lightning hit the area, hitting the monsters in the area, more importantly, hitting him.

Lana landed beside her as he tried to get back to his feet. “That’s the dragon knight, his name is Volga,” she said. “He’s been terrorizing my forces quite a bit, actually. I’m decently sure Cia brainwashed him into joining her, but I don’t think he knows that.”

“We just have to hold him off for a while, Impa’s taking care of capturing the keep.”

“Okay,” Lana said. “I think we can manage against him.” She still had her book in hand—Zelda had yet to actually see her read it, but she chose not to question it.

Zelda didn’t think she was underestimating Volga, but apparently, he was still stronger than she had initially thought, and if it wasn’t for Lana’s help, she likely would have been defeated by him.

Zelda hadn’t focused much on Lana’s way of attacking, but one of her attacks was literally summing a giant cube that looked like it was made of glass, standing on top of it and using it to crush her enemies and if Zelda was going against Lana, she would actually fear her. She was very powerful.

Lana probably could have bested him by herself, actually.

When the dragon knight fell to the ground, Lana didn’t even look tired.

“I was careless,” he said. “Next time...it won’t end like this!”

“Sure it won’t,” Lana replied.

He growled—and then, just like back at the castle, rose into the air and left again.

“Wow!” Proxi exclaimed. “I never would have guessed Lana would be so strong!”

Lana blushed under the praise. “Thanks.”

Impa ran up to them, her hand on the handle of her blade.

“It’s okay, Impa—he’s gone. We...Well, mostly Lana took care of him.”

“Did you capture the east keep?” Lana asked. “...Wait, that was the keep you guys were supposed to deal with, right?”

“I think so. Anyway, it’s captured. We can advance on our attack on the ruins.”

“Never mind, we can’t,” Impa pointed out.

“The entrance to the ruins is all blocked by those weird vines!” Proxi shouted. “I think we’re stuck...”

“My attacks have no effect on them—they’re too strong.”

“Well...we can’t go around them...” Lana frowned. “Oh, wait, I got it!” She had a boomerang in her hand, wooden and curved.

“...Lana, I do not believe that a wooden boomerang can go against the vines when my metal, six foot blade cannot.”

“Well, it’s like, a magical boomerang, because these are probably magic vines, I mean...” She gestured to them. They were moving and twitching and squirming, not to mention they appeared as a dark purple. “They’re not normal vines.” She pulled her arm back and threw the boomerang at them.

Instead of hitting the vines, it hit a weird column behind them, completely missing and it didn’t come back, it just fell to the ground, unreachable. 

“Don’t worry, I have another!” She threw another one, but it somehow went behind her. She ran to grab it, threw it again and it _almost_ touched the vines before falling to the ground. “I forgot that I’m terrible at throwing boomerangs. Um...would either of you mind trying?”

“I can try,” Zelda offered.

The same feminine voice from earlier—Cia’s voice—rang out. “Come now, I don’t like people dawdling at my doorstep! You want a welcoming party? Fine!” Zelda was pretty sure she saw another swarm of monsters run towards one of their bases.

Lana handed it to her like it was one of the most fragile things in the world—which was kind of like how she threw it.

Zelda got them in one try—the moment the boomerang touched them, they seemed to leap back into the ground as if it had bothered them.

They all rushed forward—but Lana stopped. “That’s...

“Lana, shouldn’t we start moving?” Zelda asked.

“That’s not right...the front is supposed to be blocked. I mean, there was supposed to be Gibdo’s back in the forest, and _he’s_ supposed to be here, but...” She chewed on her lip, as if she was deep in thought. “That’s not right.”

“Lana?”

“Why do you make me wait?” Cia chuckled. “Fine! I’ll just come knocking at your base!”

She seemed to snap out of whatever stupor she was in. “Right! Cia! Let’s go!” She rushed forward once more.

Zelda and Impa continued to follow Lana quickly. “Should be right up these stairs,” she muttered, still clearly thinking/ The monsters had started to thin out. They went up the stairs uninterrupted. 

The first thing Zelda noticed was the Gate of Souls. It appeared two dimensional, thinner than a coin, a weird, round, oval shape floating in the air, the interior purple, but after a minute, she noticed the figure standing in front of it, dark against the strange brightness the Gate of Souls gave off. Something on the back of the figures hand began to glow. “Oh?”

“Is that...?”

The figure turned around. A woman, Zelda realized and probably Cia, even if no one responded to her finished question.

Zelda was not expected Cia to look like...that. Zelda tried to maintain eye contact, but her outfit was...distracting. Her skin was a warm brown and most of her face was covered up with a mask that resembled a bird that covered almost everything except her mouth, but Zelda could see that her hair was short and silver. And she was tall, wearing heels, but they were all...mismatched. She was wearing a...sort of armor, it had parts of it that definitely looked like armor, but it had a very plunging neckline that showed her breasts, there was a slit in her skirt that showed vermillion markings on her thigh, and while she one long sleeve on her arm, her other arm would have been bare if it was not covered in gold jewelry. She looked strangely beautiful and nothing like what Zelda was expecting since Lana had said she went insane. She looked strangely put together, in the way she walked, the way she held herself.“Well.” She was grinning, that sort of intimidating grin that Zelda kept seeing, but at least she wasn’t laughing hysterically. She had a scepter in her hand, the top crusted with purple crystals.“This must be the princess of destiny I know so much about.”

She took a step closer—Zelda almost stepped back, even though there was a fair amount of distance between them. “Let me get a good look at you...” She chuckled. “Something about you...isn’t quite right here.” She held out her hand—floating above her palm was—

“No,” Lana said. Zelda looked over. Her eyes had widened considerably. “No, that’s...”

Two, glowing, golden triangles were floating over Cia’s palm. “I was worried I’d have to seek you out myself,” she said. “You don’t really want to trust your underlings with a task so important, you know. They’re strong and plentiful, but they have _nothing_ in their skulls—I was worried about how I was going to find you. It’s certainly welcome news to hear that the oh so mighty princess of Hyrule can grace me with her presence.”

She chuckled—Zelda noticed the bright red feather on her shoulder. “Of course we can talk _all_ about that later—preferably, when you and your forces are on the brink of dying.” Without another word directed at them, she turned on her heel, towards the Gate of Souls and raised her arms. “Come forth, servant!”

Zelda’s heart skipped a beat. Cia cleared her throat—“Come now, darling!”

Nothing happened.

She turned back to face them. “Lana, what did you do?”

“I didn’t—if anything, this is your fault!” Lana exclaimed. “You’re messing with time, we aren’t to interfere, just us being here puts this land at risk, but what you’re trying to do? There’s no way any of this will turn out in anyone’s favor! Where did you get the triforce of courage from!”

“Oh, wouldn’t you like to know?” Cia sighed. “Well, this makes things much more difficult than I intended it all to be—you see, you guys were supposed to be attacked by this monster and I was gonna use that time to set a trap to steal the triforce of wisdom, but...” She bit her lip—and grinned. “A more straight forward approach will be just fine!”

Impa apparently figured out that that was a threat before she even finished, before Lana and Zelda even had a chance to react, and still—she was too late. Cia grabbed onto the scepter she held with both of her hands and raised it above her head. With a long shout that Zelda couldn’t understand, a purple darkness crept onto the floor of the keep, almost looking like ripples on the floor, large circles overlapping before exploding while she floated in the air.

And all of a sudden, Zelda was on the floor. Everything hurt—something warm was leaking out of the corner of her mouth and her ears were ringing. She tried to say something, anything, but all that came out was a small, injured moan. In the back of her mind, she could process that someone was walking forward but couldn’t find the strength to move away, knowing she had to move away. She could almost hear the laughter, coming closer, obviously in no rush—for good reason too, there probably wasn’t much a reason in rushing when Zelda couldn’t move.

She felt fingers wrap around her wrist and scrunched her eyes shut against the bright glowing light that filled the room now—coming from her hand and moving away.

The footsteps retreated back to where they came from and Zelda managed to pry herself off of the ground. Impa was a little ways away, slowly coming out of unconsciousness and Lana was on her back, directly in front of Cia, bleeding from the temple. Cia just stepped over, not seeming to particularly care. “It was so nice of you to just bring me the triforce of wisdom. I expected an actual fight over it.”

“Cia...” Lana said, slowly getting off the ground. “You need to stop—what you’re doing is—“

“Can it, you goody two shoes!” She snapped. “I don’t need a lecture, I know _exactly_ what I’m doing.” 

Still on the floor, Impa managed to right herself and stand up—and almost fell back down. Cia threw her head back in a laugh—Zelda was starting to realize the “insane” bit.

“Behold...the awesome majesty of the completed triforce!” The golden glow appeared again and three triangles covered Cia’s face from view.

Lana was on her feet, still bleeding. “We need to get out of here,” she said to Zelda and Impa. “_Now._”

From the top of the ruins, at the distance Zelda now had between her and the honestly-pretty-scantily-clad-though-super-powerful-witch, a purple column of light shot up, touching the sky—and expanding, creating chaos and destruction on the ground. They stopped moving. They were all still injured.

“Gather around me—now!” Lana shouted. She pulled out her book again and threw it into the air at a height Zelda thought was impossible before jumping up to catch it, slamming it down on the ground, _hard._ The wave of destruction coming after them washed over them, a protective sphere forming around them.

The world around them began to change—up above, Zelda noted, a weird purple circle was around what looked like a giant mass of land, just floating in the sky. There was a large stone bridge where there had not been a large stone bridge before and a huge mountain, with a ring of smoke at the top.

“That,” Lana said, panting. “Is bad. Really, _really_ bad.”

“You don’t say,” Impa said.

The sphere around them dissolved. “...What just happened?” Zelda asked.

Lana was still bleeding from the temple—small, rivulets of scarlet had snaked down the side of her face and onto her neck. “I...might have been wrong about her trying to find the hero of another time and bring him here. I think, instead of the hero...she just brought some other times here.”

“That can’t be possible,” Impa said, but then immediately shook her head. “Well, with the completed triforce...”

Lana took a deep breath. “Okay, so you know how I said that the Gate of Souls was a doorway to time and...whatever? Goddesses, I’m getting dizzy. Well, it’s pretty useless just as a singular one—like, it’s a door, and you can walk through it, but you’d just enter an empty hallway. A dark, empty purple hallway and if it closes while you’re still inside, you won’t be able to get out until someone either with the same amount of power as a Gate of Souls uses some magic to release your soul, or someone opens it back up again. However, if there was...more Gates, then...well, you would have a couple doors to choose from. And, by the looks of it, Cia just created a ton of doors. More than two, at least.”

“Lana, are you okay?” Zelda asked.

“Lightheaded—I’m thinking blood loss and head trauma. How are you guys?”

“If I had to guess, I have a concussion,” Impa said. “And...I think I broke a bone in my arm...” Zelda looked over and noticed a shard of bone sticking out of Impa’s forearm and looked away very quickly.

Zelda looked herself over. “I have a few lacerations and bruises, but nothing much. My ears are still ringing though.”

She looked back at Lana. Her fingertips were glowing. She pressed them to her head wound and nodded. “I can try to heal you two—but we have a much bigger problem than just our injuries.”

“Is that weird island in the sky gonna fall or...?”

Lana followed her gaze up. “Skyloft. It’s gonna be _fun_ to get up there. Though it is a lot lower than it really should be.” Her injury healed—though the blood was still there—she shook her head, as if to clear it. “If Cia actually did open a Gate of Souls in each of these times like I suspect, then...things are only going to get worse for the present. We’ll have to go to each different time to close each Gate of Souls and stop any monsters coming into this time. By the looks it, there’s three of them. We’d probably have the best luck if we split up and each took a third of our forces. Impa, let me see your arm.”

Wearing her usual deadpan, even as she regarded her arm, she held it out to Lana.

“I don’t know about that,” Zelda sighed. “I know that could get everything done quicker, but our forces are weak and we could be spreading them too thin. Even if we somehow only lost a small amount of them in this battle, what if when we go to another time and we have just as rough as a fight as we did today? What if it’s worse?”

Lana finished healing Impa up but didn’t turn to face her. “What exactly do you suggest we do?”

“...I don’t think we should split up. If we split up, I don’t think we’ll ever be able to reunite. Our forces are just too small.”

“That...” Lana said, clearing her throat. She looked like she was going to say something else but shook her head. “Yeah. Let’s do that instead.”


	5. The Chapter In Which The Fun Looks Like It’s About to Happen and Midna and Agitha Show Up

“So if we’re doing this one at a time,” Proxi started, flitting around their heads happily. “Where do we start?”

Lana frowned. “Well...oh...um, I think we should save the Era of Twilight for last.” She pointed at an area, the one with a large stone bridge and a field.” Her expression had shifted into a smile, but then faltered. “...except...” Lana suddenly looked distressed.

“Except what?” Zelda asked.

Lana shook her head. “Oh, nothing!” She claimed. “Absolutely nothing!”

“I’m going to have to disagree with you there, Lana,” Impa said. “I think our best course of action would be heading for the Era of Twilight since it’s much closer to our current location than the other ones. Not to mention, if we’re actually going to another time, the Era of Twilight didn’t actually end that long ago.”

“Are you sure?” Lana asked.

Impa nodded. “It ended only about eighteen years ago.” She cast a brief glance over at Zelda before continuing. “Of course, I am aware that we probably won’t be at the end of the era if we do go there, but it’s much less distant than—“ She just pointed upwards. “Than what I assume is the Era of Sky.”

Lana nodded. “Alright! Then...” Her grin looked very fake—her eyes looked dead. “Should we leave for the Era of Twilight?”

Zelda looked around the land that was sort of familiar, but a bit different from what she was used to. She thought back to all that she knew from this time period. She knew all about the woman who ruled for the most part, she knew bits and pieces about the Twilight Realm and just what exactly that was. Zelda had always wanted to know more, for many, many reasons, but she couldn’t help but think that her reasons had been stupid and selfish—but even those thoughts hadn’t helped her bite back the longing. Impa, for some reason, had done everything in her power to make sure Zelda focused on other time periods, other parts of history when it came to her lessons. 

Looking around at the land, she felt some part of her swell up inside her chest. It honestly looked rather lovely and it wasn’t that different from their current Hyrule.

Of course, there was just the small issue of it being beset with hordes of monsters—green and short, the majority of them, armed with some rather heavy looking clubs.

Zelda slashed through one that came rushing towards her. Lana was looking around, almost frantically, looking pretty distressed even still. Proxi was still flitting above Zelda’s head happily. “Wow, Lana, are you okay? You look kind of pale. I mean, in general, you’re kind of pale, but like—it looks like all color left your face, are you feeling alright?”

Lana’s smile looked strained. “I’m fine! We just need to—“ She paused for a minute, looking around, her spell book still in hand. “Maybe we should go check out that village over there?” She suggested.

Impa looked over. “Kakariko Village,” she said. “But of this time. I seriously hope that no one is over there, because there’s a large swarm of monsters around it.”

Lana made a weird noise Zelda couldn’t really describe. “Okay, so I know this is gonna sound strange, but bear with me—I seriously think we should all go over there and make sure no one is there, in case someone is, because that would be bad.”

Impa frowned. “Lana, do you think someone’s over there?”

“Just a hunch. And that same hunch tells me we should start moving _now.“_

The monsters were actually decently spread out, meaning it was relatively easy to run a bit without running into an enemy and Zelda found herself rather easily taking them down with her rapier. A couple slashes and they fell to the ground. It was just, as they got closer, there was more of them. In the distance, Zelda could hear a panicked voice, shouting, “Oh my! Where did all of these monsters come from, they just appeared out of nowhere!”

Lana seemed distracted for a brief moment—she froze up. Zelda pulled out her bow and shot down one of the monsters that was near her. She snapped out of her weird trance after a moment.

Then there was another voice. “Okay, I don’t know where she is, but the two of us need to leave before they totally block the exit—never mind, they totally blocked the exit.”

Lana swore under her breath and then rushed forward. “Wait, Lana!” Zelda called after her, but she was already out of sight. “Impa, I think we should catch up with her! Something’s wrong!” She looked around. “Impa? Where did you go?” She brought her rapier through another enemy and they fell to the ground easily, but Impa was nowhere in sight. 

“Maybe she went after Lana?” Proxi suggested.

Zelda seriously doubted that was the case but chose to ran off in the direction Lana did, kind of hoping so.

“Get behind me!” It was basically a bark (kind of ironic, she almost laughed, especially considering her appearance,) but Agitha didn’t protest, letting Midna step in front of her and stepping behind. “Argh, I’m going to punch that stupid witch a _lot_ harder next time I see her!” Despite the fact she sounded very angry, she really hoped Agitha didn’t notice the fact her voice was shaking a bit. There was so many enemies, closing in on them—Midna could only do so much and unfortunately, Agitha could do less than her! 

All of a sudden, blue sparks showered onto the ground, hitting every monster nearby—Agitha shouted in surprise, Midna jumped, but a young woman landed on the ground before them.

“Miss Lana!” Agitha exclaimed happily.

“Well, it took you long enough!” Midna shouted. She tried to sound angry, but her eyes were wide like she was greatly shocked. “I thought you weren’t gonna show up!”

“Midna? What are you doing here?”

“I realized that wherever Agitha was, she was probably in danger, so I went to find her instead of trying to attack your forces—but it’s like they...anticipated that, and now, I can’t summon my own forces. I’m struggling with just trying to summon wolfos—_wolfos, _Lana.”

“Miss Lana, what happened?” Agitha asked. Midna remembered the last time she saw Agitha, she had managed just fine in every battle she was in and tended to walk out of everything almost totally unscathed. This time had been different. There was a tear in her stockings, as if she had fallen and there actually seemed to be a bit of a scrape—was Agitha bleeding? Her parasol in her hands looked slightly damaged, her hair slightly messy in their pigtails—but she still seemed bubbly and happy, at least. “I thought it was all over, didn’t we win?”

“I thought we did, too.” She sighed. “Look, um...something happened and I don’t know how far they are behind me, but just whatever you do, don’t panic and try to pretend this is the first time you’re seeing everyone and that nothing ever happened—“

“Lana?” Zelda called.

Midna raised an eyebrow. “Lana, what’s—“

“I’ll explain later, promise—are you guys okay?”

“Lana!” Zelda looked almost relieved as she ran up to them and Midna had to force herself not to freeze up like she had before every time she saw either Link or Zelda. _Not the Link I know, _she thought every time. _Not the Zelda I know. _But this Zelda didn’t even look like the one she had seen before and not known—Her hair was in a much tighter braid, for one thing, and Didn’t start after her hair reached her waist and she wasn’t in the armor she had been wearing before, she was in a blue tunic, almost like the one Link wore, but blue. “What happened?”

“I was right—there was two people here.” Lana seemed out of breath. “Um, maybe the two of you should introduce yourselves?”

“I’m Agitha!” Agitha exclaimed happily, falling into a flawless curtsy. “I’m princess of the insect kingdom! I have a bunch of friends in my basket and also, a worm. I don’t think he counts as an insect, but I love him!”

Zelda gave a friendly smile. “That’s amazing, it is so nice to meet you, Agitha!” Midna could tell by the look in her eyes, she was acknowledging that Agitha had to be about eleven, probably younger. Her gaze turned towards Midna. “And you are...?”

“I’m Midna,” she said, but she was very much distracted by how much this chick looked like Link, just blue and female. Had Zelda always looked kind of similar to Link? Also, where was Link? Also, why was Zelda here?

“Oh, I saw you in a history book!” Zelda exclaimed, before flushing.

Midna could help but to smile. “That’s nice—Honestly, I wasn’t sure if the events would have gone down in history.”

“No, my mother, the reigning princess at that time, worked with a scholar who knew the hero of Twilight in writing a history book all about the Twilight Invasion. She thought very highly of you!”

“Of course she did.” Even though she knew this Zelda was related to the one she had known, she kept looking for the resemblance and felt like she was finding nothing. “She was a very good woman.”

Zelda beamed.

Lana noticeably traced her fingers over the spine on her book, drawing patterns she wasn’t paying attention to with her fingertip. “So, just as I was telling you—something is happening where we’re from and we believe it’s affecting here. We’re searching for the Gate of Souls.”

Lana obviously wanted Midna to say something, but what? She had said to pretend this was the first time, but this wasn’t the first time...actually, everything had been just fine and then Cia had shown up again and Midna had done a double take because something was obviously not right and it was such a strong moment of deja vu—the first time, she had not been here. The first time, she had started off as Lana’s enemy. The first time, she had not understood what was going on. Was Midna supposed to claim she knew where it was? Because this wasn’t the first time, she did know where it was, or where it had been, but did she say that? She decided to tell some part of the truth. “If I had to guess, I would say it’s located in the Twilight Realm, that’s where all these monsters seem to be coming from.”

“The Twilight Realm?” Zelda asked. “But can’t that only be accessed by the Mirror of Twilight and...wasn’t that broken by you?”

“Yes, well...” Zelda’s gaze was disturbingly familiar—Midna of course knew why, but she didn’t like the knowledge.“Then, I was at my full power, in my true form, but I’ve been cursed to this form and because of that, I’m much weaker and the same power that has me like this has repaired it.”

”...Just like that?”

“Yes.” Midna swore Agitha was rolling her eyes, as if she didn’t understand what was wrong with Midna. 

“We can take you there!” Agitha exclaimed. “Miss Kitty and I know exactly where to go to find it, though we’ve never had any reason to find it, because we’ve never had any reason to use it, because this is our first time doing anything like this and this has definitely never happened before and we have no idea what’s going on!”

Midna was just about to tell her to stop calling her a cat, but she would much rather Agitha just not say anything. Impa and Zelda both glanced at each other, obviously suspicious.

“It’s true,” she confirmed, nodding helpfully to support Agitha’s obvious lie.

“And definitely not false!” Agitha chirped.

Impa glanced at Zelda again, Zelda glanced at Lana, who was also nodding just as helpfully. Zelda turned her gaze back on Impa and—with the slightest tint of pink on her face, weird—nodded, also apparently agreeing. “Alright then,” Impa said. “Lead the way, I suppose.”

Agitha was the one who really lead the way, though she was taking her sweet time and all surrounding soldiers were very careful to make sure no enemies came near her—the weird thing, Midna noticed, was that there was an odd lack of them at the moment, a sure clue something was about to happen and they should all be on guard, but Impa and Zelda were multiple feet away, speaking in hushed whispers. Realizing that this was a good opportunity, Midna got closer to Lana and also whispered. “So, what exactly is going on?”

“Well...” Lana bit her lip. “Cia’s back, meaning Ganondorf is almost definitely back and has taken control of her again, but I don’t know if she knows that. Everything has happened again—but in our time, there’s no records of this happening. No one’s remembered the war across the ages, _no one._ They don’t remember, and...Link hasn’t shown up. I almost hoped that maybe Cia or Ganondorf got to him, because at least then, we’d have some sort of idea about what is going to happen next, even if it’s our failure, but...it’s like he just doesn’t exist anymore. I don’t know what is happening anymore, but...just keep going. We’ll figure this out.”

“But aren’t you going to tell them?” Midna asked. “Don’t they deserve to know about what exactly is happening, even if they don’t remember the first time?”

“Of course they do,” Lana whispered. Zelda glanced over in their direction, so Midna glanced over at them and immediately both parties panicked, thinking someone overheard something. “Just like you kind of had a right to know that Cia and I...” Lana lowered her voice another octave. “But...there just isn’t a good time right now. We’ll tell them later, hopefully.”

“OOH!” Shouted Proxi. “ARE WE TALKING ABOUT—“

Agitha looked over, all confused. Impa and Zelda miraculously didn’t notice the fact that the fairy was screaming. 

Proxi lowered her voice. “Are we talking about Link? Like, where is he? The Great Fairy told me not to ask questions, but I’m asking anyway, do you guys know?”

“Our guess is as good as yours,” Midna sighed.

“...Oh.” 

“Yeah.” Lana tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

A weird silence fell over them. “This isn’t going to end well,” Proxi said. “Is it?”

Lana sighed. “I mean...Who knows?”

“Your highness,” Impa started. “I have never questioned your judgement—but you’ve never given any reason to question your judgement, and with that said, I really need to ask why you’ve made this decision.”

“I’m not certain. I don’t entirely know what’s going on, I keep getting these random moments of deja vu and this weird sense that I’ve been here before. ...But Lana seems trustworthy.”

“With all due respect, my princess—I believe you’ve fallen for a lie because you’ve fallen for a pretty face.”

Zelda flushed. “That’s not it!”

“I am not judging,” Impa said. “No judgement. We Sheikah have never been one to really judge anyone’s sexual orientation...there is rumors that even your mother held an uncommon fondness for the twilight princess Midna, before you were born.”

“...Yes—that makes up for the years of homophobic bigotry the royal family has done. The only reason I’m different is because you have basically raised me, Impa. But I’m not worried, Impa—Lana’s a light sorceress, meaning she has to be good, right?”

“...There is many responses I could have to that,” Impa said. “But I believe I should settle on ‘she is also from the same clan as Cia.’”

“What does that mean?”

“It is more than likely Lana and Cia had some sort of relationship. I can’t say how close they were, I know little of this black witch, but clans tend to be closely knit, large groups—and ones that practice magic tend to be even closer. Perhaps Cia is just one evil person from a good group, but for all we know, the clan is just evil.”

“Well, Cia...” Zelda frowned. “...I don’t know much about Cia, but again, Lana is a light sorceress, meaning she must be on our side. Plus, she’s helped us so far. And she’s fighting against Cia.”

“Things aren’t black and white, your highness. Just because she stands against Cia doesn’t mean she stands with us. And light doesn’t mean ‘good.’”

“What else would it be then?”

“Not good.”

“But light is always good.”

“...Does that mean that darkness is always not good?”

“Probably.”

“...Princess Zelda, all I ask is you exercise caution around the sorceress, just in case she is not who she claims to be.”

“I understand, Impa.”

Agitha stopped, frowning and turning to Lana. “Oh my!” She gestured to a large black wall in front of them. “I don’t have the faintest clue what that is!” Lana almost sighed—she was fond of Agitha, but she was not a good liar. Hopefully, Zelda and Impa just found it strange and did not think she was lying

“It’s a wall of twilight,” Midna said. “But...only certain areas in this field seem to be affected by the twilight, meaning that this is a sort of...artificial type. It’s not supposed to be here and either the magic that has it here is weak, or the person using that magic really doesn’t care that much. ...But that wouldn’t make any sense...?”

“Do you know who might have done this?” Zelda asked.

Midna glanced in Lana’s direction. “...It could have been multiple people. All sorts of things are happening, in case you haven’t noticed. This could easily be that-that witch from your time who’s here now, or just something the hero of this time and I missed...”

Impa seemed incredibly suspicious. “I get the feeling there is something you are intentionally leaving out.”

Midna’s eyes seemed to widen—she looked frantically at Lana. “I’m not, it’s just...” She cleared her throat. “I can’t help it.” She turned to Zelda. “You just...look a lot like her, you know. It’s distracting—I keep wanting to...talk to you, like you are her, but you’re not.”

Impa frowned and looked away. Zelda blinked, looked at Lana and then back at Midna. “Were...the two of you close?”

Midna glanced at Lana again, who sighed in relief very quietly. “I don’t know—I feel really close with her. At one point...I nearly died, so...the hero brought me to her and...She saved me. She...gave me everything she possibly could and I wish I had thanked her for it a little more. And you know, there was just...that chance I could have died anyway, and then she wouldn’t have been able to come back at all. She could have died for nothing and...she did it willingly—she just had so much faith in us.”

Zelda swallowed, all of a sudden unable to meet Midna’s eyes. For a moment, Lana and Midna locked eyes. All Lana did was shrug sadly at Midna’s gaze—she did kind of know that that would upset Zelda, but all that really mattered at the moment was trying to figure out what had happened and what was currently happening.

She tried to take her mind off of what would happen—she didn’t really have any way to know anymore, but she remembered...Cia laying on the ground...Covered in small bruises and gashes, but she wasn’t dying to any of that. She was dying because she made a horrible, horrible mistake that Lana couldn’t stop her from making, no matter how hard she tried. There was no way to save Hyrule and Cia. 

Agitha looked at all of them. “Perhaps we should keep moving forward? I don’t believe we’re far.”

They arrived shortly in a keep that was almost devoid of monsters—except like, one Darknut Impa cut down with her Giant Blade in a matter of moments. On the farthest wall of the keep, there was a large mirror. It was circular, flat looking, the frame a dark metal and the glass with glowing white marks that from afar, seemed like a part of the mirror, until Lana noticed the fact that it was projecting something, onto the dark wall opposite of it. The projection—white and three dimensional, like a black tunnel with glowing white runes—was right by the door they entered and obvious to Lana and probably Midna as well, wasn’t _actually _a projection. Or at least, not just a projection.

“Huh,” Lana said, looking at it. “So that’s the Mirror of Twilight?”

Zelda looked as baffled as she did awed. “But...Wow.”

Midna nodded, as if that was expected. “Never seen an enchanted magical mirror that serves as a portal to another realm before?” She asked with an impish grin.

“Yes,” Impa said at the exact time Zelda shook her head.

“Well,” Lana said. “I get the feeling that the Gate of Souls is somewhere in there.”

“And then after that!” Pro I exclaimed loudly. “We only have two others to go!”

Zelda nodded. “We should go then. The sooner we get in there, the sooner we get out, right?”

Midna shrugged in a careless, not at all reassuring way. “Maybe. I mean, sure.”

“Goddesses...” Lana sighed. Something already felt very, very wrong.


	6. Flying Lizards, Grounded Butterflies and One Awkward Lobster

_This is all really happening._ Zelda looked around at her surroundings—all around, her soldiers were scattered, some looking much more obviously prepared for battle and some looking at their swords like they were about to charge into battle with a stalk of celery. Beside her, Midna and Impa stood, glancing around. Lana and Agitha were somewhere behind her.

“Wow!” Proxi exclaimed, resting on her shoulder. “You look really nervous!”

“I think I’ve a bit to be nervous about,” she said, glancing around more. The Twilight Realm was truly a sight to behold—eerie in that way it was very, very unfamiliar but very, very cool. It also looked very, very empty—other than her own soldiers and allies, Zelda saw no one else. No enemies? No one stopping them from reaching the Gate of Souls they were after?

“Well, I mean, yeah, definitely! I mean, you’re a teenager! I mean, a super cool teenager and like...really cool! I mean, you got a sword, how many other teenagers got swords? And I mean like, princesses rule and all, but like, the fact that you have to fight in a war. I mean...That’s nerve wracking!”

“Yep.” She glanced around.

Midna drifted over to Lana and Agitha—they all glanced around, almost suspiciously. Immediately at her side, Impa pointed it out. “That’s suspicious.”

Zelda nodded. “I suppose so, but also, one of them is a child.”

Impa looked at her. “That doesn’t always make a difference, Princess. Something is...off about Lana. I mean, other than the fact that she seems to be only a couple years older than you and holds a skill for sorcery that people thrice her age rarely have, or that she fights this war with the most distant look in her eyes.”

“You still distrust her?” Zelda asked.

“I suppose so.” She sighed. “But the sorceress is the least of my worries. Ending this war and getting _you_ off of the battlefield is my priority.”

“Impa, you cannot win this war by yourself!”

“Believe me, princess, I am aware.” She looked at her. Her eyes were sad. “If I could, I would have ended this war far, far before it ever concerned you. ...I’m afraid it seems any princess in your family will ultimately never face an uneventful reign.”

“I don’t think reigns are typically uneventful, Impa.”

“Perhaps not—but one where there is much less of a risk is dying just to...” She shook her head and sighed. “I do not feel comfortable with you out in the battle field. Princess Zelda, if there was something that were to happen to you out here...”

Zelda smiled. “My mother would be rolling in her grave.”

“I would have failed.”

“That won’t happen, Impa,” she said, because it had to be true. “And if it does, I’ll fall fighting, alongside my troops and my allies. It’s better than waiting and hoping the battle I’m not a part of goes well.”

“Yes,” Impa said, but she wasn’t looking at Zelda. “You are right, Princess.”

Now, Zelda noticed that Midna and Lana appeared to be waiting for something, that only given away by their tense stances, the way they stood, like any minute, something was going to attack them. After a moment of consideration, Zelda walked towards them—partially wanting to see what was wrong, and partially wanting Lana to say or do absolutely anything that could put Impa at ease. “Is everything okay?”

They both looked at her. “No,” Midna said.

“_Yes,”_ Lana said, side-eyeing Midna.

There was a pause. “Yes,” Midna agreed, not looking at Lana and crossing her small arms over her small chest—not in an irritated way, but in a way that made it seem like she was uncomfortable.

Agitha was on her knees on the ground. She made a frustrated noise and got to her feet, dusting herself off. “Why, Miss Kitty, I can’t find _any_ of my insect friends here!”

“Sorry, Agitha—the Twilight Realm’s different. We don’t really _have_ a ton of insects.”

Agitha gasped in horror and shock. “That’s terrible! Why would the goddesses banish your race to such a terrible location?”

“They didn’t like us, kid.” Midna sighed and glanced at Lana—who for some reason, couldn’t hold her stare. “Something’s off. I mean...the majority of my people in this area have been either evacuated or have taken shelter in somewhere safe for a while, but...” She glanced around. “This place is empty. I don’t see Zant or anything preventing us from just waltzing into the Palace of Twilight and going to the Gate of Souls.”

“Zant?” Impa asked, turning to face her. “The Usurper King who laid waste to Hyrule not even three decades ago?”

Midna rolled her eyes, her irritation clear. “Well, first off, here—it’s not ‘not even three decades,’ it’s not even three years. And also, I don’t know why you’re suddenly suspicious of me. _He _was the one who overthrew me to get to the throne and who cursed me into this form to begin with and then I killed him for it, it’s not like I’m suddenly going to start working with him now that he’s back, I’m on your side here.”

“How exactly did you and Agitha know where to go to _find_ the Gate of Souls?”

“I was originally here in the Twilight Realm, I saw it appear.”

Impa frowned. “And how did you get to this current time’s Hyrule?”

“Through the Mirror of Twilight,” Midna said. “It’s the only way to go from your realm to this one.”

Impa nodded, clearly accepting it as an answer. “And Agitha?”

Agitha froze, her eyes widening. “Um...” She looked at Midna and Lana. “...L’il Miss Butterfly?”

Impa frowned. “What?”

Agitha dug through her basket and pulled out a small jar, opening it easily. A small, sparkly looking butterfly flew out. “Her! This is a goddess butterfly!” Agitha stretched out her palm and immediately, it landed, flapping it’s wings once. “Rumors say that they are what’s left of the lingering spirits of those who served the goddesses, reincarnated as a butterfly because...butterflies are great! She can take me anywhere, if I ask her really nicely!”

Lana nodded. “It’s true.”

“Can it help us find the Gate of Souls, Agitha?” Zelda asked.

“I’ll ask!” She cleared her throat. “L’il Miss Butterfly, we’re searching for the Gate of Souls, do you think you could take us there?”

A moment passed. Slowly, the butterfly moved...Before flying a short distance away and then stopping, as if waiting. “I think we should follow her!”

“Follow...” Her words were slow—Impa’s brows were knit in confusion. “...the butterfly?” She looked at Zelda.

Midna said helpfully, “I know the Gate of Souls is in the Palace of Twilight, and although I know where that is, her butterfly could help us find it’s exact location, instead of leaving it at ‘somewhere in the palace.”

“Alright then,” Zelda said. “Lead the way, Agitha...With your butterfly.”

Agitha nodded, her expression chipper and happy as she began to follow the butterfly who flew slowly, as if waiting patiently for them to catch up. Midna followed right behind, Zelda followed behind her, Impa by her side and Lana trailed behind all of them, looking around still.

Zelda had begun to get used to the bright, blue light in the corner of her eye at almost all times, though sometimes, Proxi could be kind of quiet. “...Something’s weird about this place,” Proxi said.

“Funny,” Midna responded. “I always thought the same of your Hyrule.”

“Something’s off, though—is...it supposed to be this quiet?” Zelda asked.

Midna stopped walking—Agitha kept walking ahead, humming a joyful sounding tune as she followed the butterfly. “...No.” Whatever emotion was laced into her voice, Zelda had a bad feeling about it. “It’s not.” She seemed to follow Agitha much quicker—Midna noticed that her body barely moved when she floated off the ground, her obviously preferred method of transportation.

Impa and her stopped. “That was weird,” Impa said.

“...Suspicious, I suppose,” Zelda admitted. “But more concerning.”

“Midna isn’t up to anything,” Lana said, walking right past them, but she turned on her heel to face them, walking backwards. “Really—she’s nice, really, she’s just worried right now and really angry. She _hates_ this form and she acts weird when she’s in it.”

“Are you and her close?” Impa asked.

Lana glanced over her shoulder at Midna. “Oh, you know...I watched over all of time with Cia! Kind of...makes you attached to people you never met because you were isolated in the middle of a forest with absolutely no one to interact with, making you super awkward in social interactions with no friends and no social skills.” She blinked. “...Not really, we’re not really close.”

Zelda felt a stab of sympathy for Lana. “But...weren’t you with Cia?”

Lana’s expression shifted into something much more melancholy. “Yeah, sure...Definitely.” She turned on her heel again and walked forwards this time, her back to them. Zelda watched her fingers wrap around her other forearm.

In a short amount of time, they reached a keep and Agitha stopped. “L’il Miss Butterfly wants to rest—she thinks this keep would make a lovely base!”

Lana kept looking around. “There is absolutely no enemies,” she said. “Which is weird, given that before...” She frowned.

“Before there was some!” Midna said. “And I doubt they just retreated! I mean, we’re all a force to be reckoned with and everything, but I don’t think we’d be allowed to reach the Gate of Souls without a fight, but all enemies are gone.” She looked off to the distance—Zelda could see a large, black building. “The Gate of Souls has to be in there.”

Zelda struggled to put it into words—there wasn’t really stairs leading to the front, more like a slope. The simplest way to phrase it was, it looked big and scary, but a lot of the Twilight Realm looked pretty scary to the point where Zelda decided it wasn’t actually all that frightening, it was just unfamiliar and it was kind of difficult to see everything with how dark it was. Honestly, the colors were pretty and some of the structures looked cool. On top of the nervousness rising inside her chest, Zelda felt her interest swelling.

Agitha frowned—her butterfly was on her palm again. She looked at Lana. “L’il Miss Butterfly says she thinks we should try the bridge.”

Lana’s entire body went taut and rigid before she forced herself to relax, as if thinking no one would notice the panic that had flashed in her eyes when in fact, everyone had. “The bridge?”

Agitha nodded. “The bridge.”

Midna sighed. “She’s right—“ She gestured to one of the buildings connected to the palace. “That door’s shut. Someone’s trying to keep us out. There’s probably a way to get in across the bridge.”

“The bridge over there?” Impa asked. “It’s not very far. Looks reasonably sturdy to me.”

“It is,” Agitha said, nodding her head vigorously. “Very sturdy. It definitely will not break!

“Agitha,” Lana said. Zelda noted she was being careful not to meet anyone’s eyes. “Why don’t you and Miss Butterfly lead the way to the bridge?”

The trek was filled with a very awkward silence. Lana wiped her damp palms on her pants. She could feel Impa’s scarlet eyes boring holes into the back of her head and maybe Zelda’s, but they were a lot less intense and more curious. Midna, at her side, was eyeing her but Agitha kept on walking cheerfully—though even her positivity felt a little strained.

When they at last reached the bridge, Midna, Agitha and her both stopped in front of it, Zelda and Impa only stopped because of them until they were all standing side by side, looking at the bridge.

“Lana,” Zelda spoke. “Is everything okay? You’ve been acting strange.”

She wanted to say that nothing was okay, but she really couldn’t. Not only would it not achieve anything, but her lips refused to form the words. “No, it’s fine.” She felt like she was supposed to say anything else, but she wasn’t sure what. The years she had spent in that temple with Cia had left her social skills weak. She had no idea how to interact with normal people, and the people she was surrounded with weren’t exactly what she would classify with “normal people.” And it wasn’t like she didn’t want to, she had yearned to interact with everyone she couldn’t and now she had a handle to, but what exactly could she do?

What did she tell them? Did she tell them about her and Cia...? About how this had all happened before? About how she knew Cia was going to die, and in the end, she would end u leaving, everyone would go back to their own times, and at some point, peace would return back to the land—that peace _had_ returned back to the land only for it to all go away, any hope of peace shattered in an instant, bringing them back _here, _in this war that was so large and terrible it stretched over eons and centuries?

“Well, the bridge isn’t going to cross itself!” Lana said cheerfully, though she wished it could. She was the first one to start walking across it.

Her every muscle felt tense, as if ready to run across it in case it started breaking. Surely though, that wouldn’t happen, right?

She heard footsteps other than her own—the others had probably started after her.

She heard a crack and all of time seemed to freeze, but she didn’t. Somehow, she stayed moving, able to see the crack forming beneath her feet. Everyone else’s eyes widened—and they all immediately started running before the middle section of the bridge broke—taking three people with it. Lana looked at the one person to her left, already doing math but not quite recognizing who was next to her until she went closer to the crumbling edge and looked over. Agitha was sitting happily, on her knees, her palm open to the butterfly on it while Midna and Impa peeled themselves off the ground.

“Oh no!” Agitha gasped. “The bridge broke!”

Beside Lana, Zelda’s eyes grew wide. She called down, “Impa, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Princess.” She got to her feet. “That could have been way worse. Are you okay?”

“The bridge broke,” Lana said. “And all of our forces are on the unbroken part of the bridge with no way to get over to this half of the land.”

Midna groaned. “Of course this happened. Of course it happened while we were on the bridge, of course.”

There was a long pause. Midna spoke up again. “I’m pretty sure there’s a object somewhere in the palace. In one of the keeps. Something that might help us out, if you’re willing to go looking for it.”

“Do you happen to know which keep?” Zelda asked. “That building looks big.”

“I mean, just look in whatever ones you can get into and try not to die, there’s a chance it won’t even be there.”

“And you’re all just going to sit there until we find something?” Zelda asked. “What if something happens?”

“Well, standing there, staring us down isn’t about to help us out of there and we can’t just fly up there!” Midna exclaimed.

“But, Miss Kitty, weren’t you floating earlier?” Agitha asked.

“I can’t float that high, Agitha. I can barely float at all.”

“Midna is right,” Impa said. “Just be careful, princess. We’ll still be here when you get back.”

Zelda turned to look at Lana. Without much more words exchanged other than an excited exclamation from Proxi, the two of them started walking towards the building again.

“So, you really got to see all of history?” Zelda asked.

“Yeah,” Lana said. She was the one leading the way. “For a really long time, too.”

Zelda knew she should have a thousand other things on her mind, but she was really curious. “How long?”

Lana paused. “...I know too much history...Um...” She thought for a moment, as they entered the Palace. Zelda glanced around but there wasn’t any signs of life other than the two of them. They just kept moving forward. “The war at the start of the Era of Sky, what was that called?”

Zelda frowned. “What war?”

“Hm...I don’t think there was a war at the start of that era, Lana,” Proxi said.

“No, no—it was before the Era of Sky ever even begun.”

“I don’t really know much about the Era of Sky,” Zelda admitted. “I mean, I know people used to live in the sky before the majority of them descended. ...I don’t know much else.”

“Well...” Lana hesitated. “The Goddesses created the land and life as the people knew it, though you likely know that. The Goddess, Hylia, found some sort of evil, after the Triforce which would grant them the power they sought. And in their lust for that power, they were willing to destroy everything and everyone in their way. There was...rumors that the sword he held with him claimed so many lives, it eventually developed a life itself and was undyingly loyal to his master. Hylia sent the Hylian people, up in the sky, beyond even the clouds, in an attempt to save them from the ravages of the war the evil brought upon the world. ...Most Hylians made it.” Lana cleared her throat. “A few stayed behind, usually because they were dying.”

“Did you stay behind?” Zelda asked. “Is that what you’re getting at?”

“...I don’t remember. What I do remember was I practiced sorcery, and I studied history and I worshipped the goddesses, and at some point, I was chosen, alongside Cia, to watch over the balance of the Triforce.” Zelda tried to not question why the ‘alongside Cia’ bit sounded like an afterthought—this was Lana’s story, but still, something in the back of her mind bothered her.

“By who?” Proxi asked.

Zelda asked. “Did you know Cia then?”

“The goddesses, I assume. I don’t know, it was a long time ago. And...yes, I did know Cia.” Something about that felt false, but Zelda didn’t know why.

Zelda looked around, not sure if she should keep asking questions. “How well? Were the two of you close?” Lana squirmed.

“...We were really close. Closer than...than you’d think someone could be.”

“Oh.” Zelda rubbed at her arm. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize the two of you were like...”

Lana frowned. “What? Like what?”

“Like...whatever you would call that.” Zelda wasn’t sure how to phrase it and she wasn’t sure how to say it without offending Lana—though, she wasn’t sure in general how to think about those things.

Lana stopped. “What do you think I would call that?” She asked.

“Like...a boyfriend, but a girl?”

Lana flushed beet red. “What? No! No! No, she wasn’t....No, we were just really close! We weren’t like—no! She’s...more like a sister, not a significant other! Plus, we’re here because she has some sort of villainous crush for the hero, that’s not...No.”

“Oh, sorry, sorry...I just thought like...” Zelda blushed. “Sorry. That was...Sorry.”

“No. It’s...fine.” Lana shook her head. “Geez.”

“...Are like, the two of you related?” Zelda asked, but Lana went quiet. “Sorry, I’m asking too many questions. Though, I don’t think that’s how genetics work—her skin is a lot darker. I’m sorry, I’m just trying to make sense of everything and...” Lana looked at her and Zelda found herself looking away. “I’m not really used to being by myself with anyone who’s not Impa. I never realized how out of my depth I was when it came to social interaction. I don’t have siblings or that many friends other than just allied kingdoms with Hyrule. I don’t mean to be..._this, _I’m just trying to keep calm and...I think you’re really cool, Lana. I’ve never met anyone with _blue_ hair before!”

Lana smiled at her. “It’s fine, Princess Zelda. I’ve been isolated in the woods for centuries, I’m pretty out of my element too!”

Zelda almost beamed. “You don’t have to call me _Princess_ Zelda when Impa’s not around. She can be a bit weird about my title, but I really don’t mind.”

Lana looked away. “We should keep moving.” At some point in their conversation, they had stopped walking.

Zelda couldn’t help but to admire the building—it was a little off putting, in the way that it was dark and unfamiliar, but it held a strange beauty Zelda didn’t think she had seen before. “You’re right.” She checked for her rapier—it was still there, on her hip like it had always been. “I haven’t seen any enemies so far.” She glanced around again, but every keep seemed closed—except one.

Zelda found herself tensed, her hand directly over the handle on her rapier—this felt _wrong _somehow. That feeling she had had on the battlefield, the one that kept her away from that one area and the one that insisted she had stayed by Impa’s side back at Hyrule Castle, the one that told her where to look for the reborn spirit of the hero she hadn’t found—that was what this was, a nagging whisper in the back of her head, telling her to be on guard. Her heart pounded—but on the bright side, beside her, Lana had her hands around her tome, her brow furrowed.

In the keep, there was a chest in the center of the room. Lana and her lingered outside for a moment—Zelda suddenly wondered if this was some sort of trap. If her and Lana were to step in, would the doors close and lock them inside? Should only one of them go inside? But what if an enemy were to appear—having only one person inside would mean a much more difficult fight if it was a trap, but one of them would definitely be in less danger, and maybe they could help the other? Or did they both go in and risk the doors closing? What made Zelda so sure a door was gonna close?

She really didn’t want to separate herself from Lana—yes, there was no telling Lana could really be trusted and some of her words/actions were suspicious, but Zelda honestly believed she was on their side. She had been nothing but kind to her, and that same nagging whisper in the back of her head encouraged her to trust Lana.

“We should go in,” Zelda said. “There could be something important in the chest. Maybe it’ll help us help Impa, Midna and Agitha.”

Lana nodded, but she seemed slightly nervous—it was also obvious that nervousness would do nothing to actually stop her. “Yes.”

They both moved slowly, approaching the chest. Zelda stood by while Lana opened it. Before either of them could grab whatever it’s contents were—let alone examine them—the walls started shaking. A horrible, almost metallic sounding roar (almost a bit like some sort of screech) sounded. The noise was deafening. The walls stopped shaking—Zelda swore she heard something outside. “What was that?” Zelda asked.

Lana stared into the chest’s depths—it was covered in dust, as if it hadn’t been touched in awhile—except, through the dust was a handprint. A really small one. Slowly, Lana pulled out a hook shot. And then another. And then three more. “Yeah, this will probably work.”

“What..._are _they?” Zelda asked.

“Hook shots. The hero of legend used them multiple times—they allowed him to latch onto something and pull himself towards it.” She pressed one into Zelda’s hands.

“Like the claw shots? That’s what the Hero of Twilight used, right?”

“Yes,” Lana said. “But the claw shots are, in my opinion, better. And you could use two of them. Or at least, he did.” She swallowed and glanced around, constantly nervous and on edge. “Let’s go back to them.” She followed Zelda out of the building—but Zelda stopped.

“What _is_ that?” She asked, her eyes wide.

Lana sighed. “Yep. That’s a dragon.”

Zelda had never seen a dragon before—it was large, impossibly large, it’s wings leathery. It’s body was covered in scales and metal, it’s tail long, but the end was glowing. “...Wow.” Then, “we need to find them.”

They hurried to get back.

Midna stopped floating and just sat down next to Agitha. “They sure are taking awhile.” Impa was beginning to wonder why she didn’t just float away—had she been telling the truth earlier? She sighed. “How’s your butterfly doing, Agitha?”

“Oh, Li’l Miss Butterfly is okay,” she said. “...A little frightened, she isn’t used to your realm, Miss Kitty. But I’m glad she’s here with us, I thought for sure she’d fly away by now!” She was still smiling, totally happy.

“What makes you say that?” Impa asked her.

Agitha turned to her, smile on her face. “She’s a bit of a coward.” She gasped and turned to the butterfly in her palm. “Oh no, L’il Miss Butterfly, I’m sorry! Don’t worry, Lana will be back soon.”

“The two of you act like you know her,” Impa pointed out. “Why is that?”

Midna looked at her. “...She’s the one who helped us out, when we were cornered. We wouldn’t have made it out if it wasn’t for her.”

“So in those five minutes, you begun to trust her this much and consider her an ally? Did she say anything in those five minutes that made you trust her that much?”

Midna seemed to notice her suspicion. “Just told us what was happening.”

“And,” Impa said, and she knew she had that look in her eyes she got when she verbally cornered someone or was on a trail in the conversation that she wanted. Zelda had told her about it once, when she had snuck out to go to Castle Town in one of the few instances where Zelda had to tend to other matters and left her alone for a moment. Zelda had pointed it out, said she knew she was caught and Impa had laughed and laughed. She didn’t have to be subtle when she knew she was onto something. “What did she say was happening?”

Midna blinked and rubbed at her nose before her small hand went back to her side, like she knew that it made it obvious she was lying, but her eyes showed nothing but truth. “You’re suspicious of Lana.” It was not a question. “Look, Impa, I get it—you’re a general, a total badass and you want to protect your kingdom and your princess, I...I have a ton of respect for you, but if there is anyone you should be suspicious of, it’s not Lana.”

“So, should I direct my suspicions towards you then?” Impa asked. “Because the fact that you defended Lana and ignored my question _is _suspicious.”

“Then I guess I’m suspicious.” She rubbed at her small nose—Midna was very small. She looked strange. Impa wondered what sort of magic could give her this form. “I don’t know anything about realm or your time, but I’m sure in whatever these...decades of a difference, I guess, I know she isn’t evil. She’s only trying to help you guys.”

“You sound very confident in that, but I feel like you’re lying.”

Agitha spoke up. “Lana’s good, Miss General Impa.” She looked up at her, all childish innocence and ignorance. “Didn’t she tell you?”

Impa sighed. “Yes, but Agitha, it’s not uncommon for bad people to seem good.”

Agitha looked at her. “...And seemingly good people can be bad.” She tilted her head—the butterfly flapped it’s wings. “You seem good. How do we know you’re not bad?”

Impa tried to think of something to say but before she could, Agitha laughed. “I’m not serious, I know you’re good, Miss Impa!”

She frowned. “What—“

Agitha reached into her basket and pulled out something scarlet. “Mister Lob would have told me!” She was grinning.

“That’s...not an insect, Agitha,” Midna said.

“Well, no, Mister Lob isn’t _technically,_ but he’s from the same family type. He’s a distant relative. I love him all the same.” 

Impa blinked. “Is he...alive?” The lobster moved.

Midna looked dumbfounded. “When did you _get_ a _lobster?”_

“I’ve had him the entire time!” Agitha exclaimed. “Moral and emotional support. It’s very important and Mister Lob is very good at his job as my advisor, I can assure you!”

Midna was still trying to find something to say that wasn’t just laughter, before a voice cut her off. “Hey!”

They all looked up—Lana and Zelda were standing, looking down at them. Lana jumped down, her hand bracing her as she landed. Zelda moved slightly slower, but was right behind her. “We found hook shots.” She pointed upwards, at a piece of the bridge that the hook shot would likely latch onto, and they could get back up from there. “We should be able to get back up, we have exactly...” She frowned. “...Six. One extra.” Lana seemed to be thinking about something. “Also, why is Agitha holding a lobster?”

“It’s Mister Lob!” Agitha exclaimed. “He’s my royal advisor.”

“Ah,” Zelda said, in a tone that Impa knew matched hers when someone said things that didn’t sound true but for one reason or another, you couldn’t or wouldn’t comment on. “That explains it.” There was a beat. “Anyway.” She handed a hook shot to Impa and one to Agitha while Lana handed one to Midna, which would have been kind of funny in any other situation since it was so large in comparison to her, she was obviously struggling to hold it, and she still looked very confused, staring at Mister Lob as Agitha placed him back in her basket. 

“So, we shoot these things at that thing and we’re up there?” Agitha asked.

“Not quite,” Lana said. “When you aim at it, it should be relatively easy to get back up there, just don’t let go, even when it forcefully jerks you forward.”

Agitha nods. “Okay, Miss Lana, I can do that.”

“You go ahead and go first, Agitha,” Zelda said.

“Okay.” She fixed her basket so it was on her arm—the butterfly flew upwards, like it was gonna wait for her up there.

Agitha was shouting “WHEEEE!” The entire time.

“She is staying remarkably calm despite th circumstances,” Zelda pointed out. “It’s disconcerting.”

“That’s just Agitha for you,” Lana sighed.

“Impa, you go next.” Impa turned to look at Zelda. “You can keep an eye on Agitha while we all get up there.”

“But...Your highness...” Impa had her hand on her knife. “I would much prefer staying near you on the battlefield, even if we are not currently in a battle or in danger.”

“It will only be a moment,” Zelda replied.

There was a long moment where the two stared at each other. Impa sighed, bowing her head. “As you wish, Princess Zelda.” 

“Oh, that was fun!” Agitha exclaimed, out of sight.

Impa aimed the hook shot carefully. Zelda turned to Lana and Midna. “She was interrogating the two of you, wasn’t she?” Her voice was slightly hushed.

“She doesn’t trust us, at all. And definitely not Lana.”

She nodded. “Well...Regardless of whether or not I should, I trust the two of you. Impa is just like that—but she is not unreasonable. I’m sure you understand why she’s skeptical, though.”

Lana sighed. “I would be too.” 


End file.
